Feb 21 2011
The teams participating in the FIRST Lego League for building robots included students from the Missouri Valley, Logan, Boyer Valley Schools, Woodbine, and West Harrison.
The teams usually consisted of a maximum of 10 students in grades four through eight. The Harrison County Extension offers financial support and assistance to each participating team. Dee Colwell, an employee who works with the extension, mentioned that a total of 8 teams are participating this year.
Teams are expected to use a basic motor and Legos to build a robot. The teams were first subjected to an interview conducted by a panel of judges. Further, each team had to present its finding on a topic based on the competition’s theme. Following this, the teams were expected to program the robot to perform several tasks. The purpose of the final two rounds was aimed at evaluating the maneuvering capability of a remotely operated robot. Scores secured by each team was dependent on the successful completion of each task. The score was greater for certain complicated tasks performed by the robot.
The teams started preparations in September for the FIRST Lego League. The theme of the FIRST Lego League this academic year is “Body Forward which tests the skills of students in the field of biomedical engineering.
Lori Lockwood, coach of Brain Bots team stated that the teams participating had to present a research project about on an organ. Lockwood trains a team of fifth-graders belonging to Logan Elementary. Prior to training the Brain Bots, she has served as a coach for the Steve Liverlovers team, which constituted of students from the fourth- through seventh-graders. The topic chosen by the Brain Bots team for the presentation was the central nervous system. The students learnt that the helmets used by the military personnel were not equipped with any safety padding, and thus their study was aimed at protecting the nervous system. The Brain Bots did exceptionally well, by scoring 95 out of 400 points, for a team that had no previous robotics experience.