Ida Elementary students are building robots!

Yes, those Ida Elementary School students are building robots! A new FIRST LEGO League (FLL) program at the school has third and fourth graders building robots, researching solutions to the problems engineers face, and learning to work as a team. They are spending eight weeks of practices preparing to compete at the Mission Possible Tournament, held Saturday, November 23, 2013, at Monroe High School from 9:00 am to 3:15 pm. The tournament is free and open to the public.

Ten elementary students Chloe Bourbina, Savanna Callihan, Kirby Carsten, Dylan Cogswell, Liliana Patrick, Abby Shumacker, Ryan Seitz, Mason Taylor, Owen Vogt, and Carson Zarend  are coached by two Ida High School students, Kelsey Hite and Grant Bussel, who are members of FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team VIRUS 3547, which meets at Monroe County Community College.

The team is using LEGO Mindstorms kits on loan from the Monroe County Intermediate School District. These kits were previously used for a series of Robotics Camps that were held at the MCISD this summer.  The team received the funds necessary to register from Foot & Ankle Specialists, P.C. Because of this connection, they are nicknamed ‘Team Big Foot.’

Each year, FLL addresses a challenge facing society to be solved by future engineers and scientists. This year’s FLL challenge, Nature’s Fury, has students investigating a natural disaster in a community and engineering an innovative solution to some aspect of the disaster’s challenges. They are also designing robots to complete missions on a natural disaster-themed playing surface. For example, they land a cargo plane of supplies on a cleared runway, move people and animals to safe zones, and trim damaged tree limbs from near safety lines. In addition to the robot and project components, the program also teaches students teamwork. They learn how to lead, follow leadership, take turns, and encourage other team members.

The LEGO Mindstorms robotics materials allow students to build and program robots with no previous experience, yet they are also sophisticated enough that they are used all the way up to introductory college robotics courses. Each robot is built of LEGO and LEGO Technic pieces around the Mindstorms brick (controller), motors, and sensors. Students then use a graphical programming environment to write a program and download it to the brick. The robot is then able to receive sensor input and move its motors, allowing it to complete a task.