Young engineers take on challenges

  • Published
  • By Mary Lou Gorny
  • Hilltop Times editor
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  Sometime last year when Kathy Hajeb, with the U of U Technology Venture Development Office, approached Hill Air Force Base to support and develop teams for First Lego League, the goal was to hold a competition for 48 teams at the state level.

Frances Bradshaw, School Liaison Officer at Hill, sent out word to the schools and worked to secure grants. Initially, three teams were funded for grants and four more added later.

The robotics program for 9- to 16-year olds (9 to 14 in the U.S. and Canada) is designed to get children excited about science and technology --- and teach them valuable employment and life skills, according to the First Lego League website.

The competition in which the teams are given only a certain amount of time to come up with a way to fulfill a broad assignment area and specific elements their robot must complete creates an opportunity to demonstrate creativity and problem solving abilities.

Coaches and mentors are required, but the experience is rewarding.

"We ended up sending 10 mentors out to help teams in the area all the way down to Salt Lake. We also sponsored seven teams with a grant," said Bradshaw. The National Defense Education Program provides grants for up to three years consecutively, and then ties to businesses and other programs hopefully step in to provide funding as networking and support grows for the teams.

This year, by the time of the competition on Jan. 29, 56 teams had signed up.

"There were still teams that didn't make the list," she said.

"So, it's been decided that we're going to hold between four and five state qualifiers next year," Bradshaw explained.

The competition held at the University of Utah Student Union Building, with four competitions going on at the same time, was a complex, well-organized event, despite the challenge of 56 teams. Organizers hope to pare that number down greatly with the use of those state qualifiers.

Robot Core Values (teamwork), Robot Missions, Robot Design, and Projects were the main categories of competition. This year's theme was biotechnology.

"In the spirit of First Lego League there are only two things that are actually judged off of points," she explained. "Everything else is judged by a panel of judges."

"It was fantastic," reported Bradshaw. Although no teams supported by Hill AFB made the final list of winners, a team from the local area did do well in the Projects Area:

Research - Eight Little Einsteins (Whiteside Elementary 6th grade, Layton).

"I had so much fun," said Bradshaw. "There were so many kids. The entire Student Union Building was wall-to-wall people and there were so many parents there. Kathy Hajeb did such an excellent job."

She said without the help of the software provided by the First Lego League it would have been an impossible task to rotate the 56 teams. Still, the number is much too large for such a competition, hence the need for the state qualifiers next year.

The Robot Core Values section of the competition brought out some of the best attributes of teamwork, said Bradshaw.

Some of the broader aspects that go into the judging and awarding of points are more along the lines of "How did they come up with the idea" "How did they problem solve it?" "Did they form a cohesive team?" "How do they talk to each other?"

"First Lego League at the elementary level is not just interested in: Can these kids build a robot and make it work?" said Bradshaw. "That's actually more secondary because there are more awards and trophies given out for things that are based not just on the technical aspects but on how well they problem solve together, how well can they think on the spur of the moment."

Team building

One of the things she was most impressed with was illustrated during the judging process when the groups were questioned about the selection of team leaders:

'Well, little kids think that the one who yells the loudest and insists is the leader," Bradshaw said. "But what First Lego League does a really good job of teaching is that most often it's the person who leads by example and silence that is your strongest leader.

"We are talking about fourth-, fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders who are doing things that a lot of times adults can't do," Bradshaw explained. "These kids said, 'You know, at first we didn't get along and everyone was yelling and fighting and they wanted their way and then we realized, that that wasn't going to work.' And then they said, 'Now we have a system and everyone gets listened to' and when we asked them how they felt about it, they said, 'Oh, we like our new system much better.'

"One of the teams that won an award she recalled said, 'When we first started out everybody wanted to be in charge. Now we have a team captain.' When asked if he is the one that makes all the decisions, she reported they replied, 'No. We all contribute and we all discuss whose idea is best and for what reason.'"

Flying Tigers

Kevin Bongiovanni, Flying Tigers coach team and Team Hill contractor, described the experience he had as a coach of trying to help create an environment where each member could contribute. "In the end it's about time management -- there is so much to do, so little time," he said, as he talked about preparing the kids for the presentation and helping them learn not to interrupt one another and focus.

"On game day, walking on the 'field,' I set a simple goal for the team," Bongiovanni said. "As long as we don't finish last, we will do great.

"After the first round, we were in 15th place. I would have been happy with 30th. All that time we worried that we did not have everything ready," he continued.

"Instead, everything fell into place when we needed it most. At the end, we did awesome," he said. "We finished in fifth place on the missions. We were runner-up in the other judging categories.

"The team's excitement spread around the competition floor," Giovanni said as he described his team's participation. "If the last robot mission had succeeded, we could have had third. Our Lego engineer fell out of the basket when the robot accidentally ran over a field piece."

Bradshaw, Hill AFB Science, Technology, Electronics and Mathematics liaison member served on the planning committee for the event and served as a floating judge.

This was the first official Utah state competition, and the overall winner received a trip to St. Louis to compete in the national competition. Pi Pod (home school of Sandy) took that honor.

"This is a huge international competition program and so every state doesn't get to send a state representative to nationals," said Bradshaw. She explained that states send representatives on a rotating basis.

Bradshaw said they asked the kids after the competition: "'Well, do you think this was fun? Would you do it again?' and the kids said an overwhelming, 'Oh, my gosh, yes.'"

Plans are ahead for workshops to help teams build their own practice tables and training for coaches.