RIGA — “3 … 2 … 1 … LEGO!”
With that command, the action started at the FIRST Lego League Finger Lakes Regional qualifying tournament at Churchville-Chili High School on Saturday.
In front of signs that read, “Blood, Sweat and Gears,” and wearing matching team shirts, 21 teams involving about 200 students in grades fourth through seventh competed in an all-day competition. The students conducted presentations about the human body and medicine and then participated in a Lego robot performance round with robots completing tasks relating to the human body.
“I’ve learned how to build robots, how to program them, how to not get frustrated when it doesn’t work,” said John Steele, 11, a sixth-grader at St. Agnes school in Avon, Livingston County. “You just need to be patient and try again.”
Important lessons such as these are the aim of the program, event coordinator Jason Rees said.
“The main idea is to get kids interested in science and technology,” said Rees, who works as a technology teacher at Churchville-Chili High School and also coaches the school’s robotics team. “Through this, they are also learning things about the human body, about teamwork, about working with mentors.”
While Steele and his teammates didn’t advance to the regional championship Dec. 5 at the University of Rochester, they learned from the experience.
“They really enjoy learning new things, like the programming, the mechanical aspects, about biomedical engineering,” said Cathy Frank, a quality engineer at Harris Corp., who coached St. Agnes. “We want to engage kids in science, technology and engineering.”
The nine students from St. Agnes demonstrated their problem-solving skills. They scored 125 out of 400 points in the first robot run, but took time to make adjustments for the next round. The fixes paid off with a score of 190.
“We watched it fail and then we finally succeeded,” said Matt Smith, 11, a sixth-grader from St. Agnes. “I’ve learned that robots never do what you want them to do. One time it may work, the second time it won’t. You just have to keep on trying.”
Teams from Lockport, Churchville-Chili, Henrietta, Honeoye Falls and Spencerport advanced to the regional final.
Other regional competitions were held at Webster’s Spry Middle School, Palmyra-Macedon High School and Edison Tech.
Source:
http://rocnow.com/article/local-news/201011210345
