Jackson's school takes part in First Lego League, a program geared to get kids excited about science and technology. Two times a week during the school year, the Lego robotics club met after school to work towards competition at the end of the year.
This years theme for Lego League was, Natures Fury. In the three part competition, the kids are challenged with real world natural disasters and how to Prepare, Be Safe, and Rebuild using technology.
Part One: The Project.
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| Last min presentation prep |
Jackson's team chose a topic from a list of natural disasters such as; flood, earthquake, hurricanes, and tornados. They decided on Wildfires and chose to address the problem of keeping firefighters safe while battling a raging wildfire. Their solution was a life-size robotic firefighter that was controlled remotely to keep the human firefighter safe.
Over the months they had to plan, design and research how this robot would function. They had to plan every intricate detail down to what type of metal to use that could withstand the heat of a roaring blaze, the type of tread to use so the robot could navigate over debris and fallen trees, even the end weight and cost of the robot. At the competition, his team presented their project to a panel of judges. All of the presenting was done behind close doors so there could be no coaching by parents, teachers or coaches.
Part Two: The Robot Games
The ultimate goal is to earn the most points by completing missions. The mission field was made up of multiple natural disaster situations. Every mission had a very specific purpose tied to a real natural disaster. The more missions the team completed, the points they earned.
Each team had to create a physical robot and then program the robots from scratch. Possibilities were endless and it was fun to see what all the teams came up with. Jackson really took to programing and quickly became the teams top programer.
Here's a link to a video that explains the missions.
Natures Fury Mission Field. Some of the missions include; bringing supplies to emergency zones, raising a house on stilts, moving emergency vehicles to safe zones, saving power lines, saving pets and people, also navigating over flood waters and landslides.
A round was 2.5 minutes which is not enough to complete the entire course so it was up to the teams to chose which missions to complete.
Competition was done on stage with jumbo screens projecting the mission field to the spectators. Each team competed in 3 rounds and the highest score was tracked on the scoreboard.
The kids also presented their robot to the judges in an interview. They explained how everything worked and the thought process of why they chose to design the robot the way they did.
Part Three: Core Values
This was another interview with the judges to determine how well they embraced the core values of First Lego League. They were asked how well they worked as a team and how they overcame obstacles. Judges also had walked through the prep area and took note on how the teams were interacting with other teams, how clean they kept their work area and their overall sportsmanship.
Jackson had an amazing time throughout the entire season. Competition was an all day event between all the judge interviews and the battles. Jackson had the support of his Uncle, Grandma, Grandpa, Myself and my boyfriend Russ for the battles. It was such a fun and high energy environment. He is really looking forward to participating again next year.
Jacksons team, named Rescue Squad won the Judges Award for overcoming a major obstacle when they had to rebuild their entire robot only days before the competition.
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