February 2, 2006 at 6:07 a.m.
First Lego League state tourney winners programmed to succeed
First Lego League state tourney winners programmed to succeed
Bot is short for robot, and zealot, well you understand where that’s coming from after spending a few minutes with these kids.
In the basement of a home on the south edge of Wyoming Township, they gather close in around their practice Lego League robotic task course, which is about the size of a billiard table. They agonize over the placement of their robot’s obstacles and compassionately explain that the robot batteries are low so its tasking is a little sluggish this day.
Each youngster enthusiastically explains a portion of the four-pronged competition; of which the actual Lego robot construction and course completion is one-quarter of the score.
There’s also a research component, competitors are judged for their professionalism and interviewed on the extent of their knowledge of the year’s theme. Cooperation both within and among the teams is scrutinized by anonymous judges roaming the competition floor.
This year the home-schooled Botzealors scored 38 points higher than the second place competition-- a Hopkins School Dist. entry. They achieved a 400 score which no team has accomplished in the program’s history.
Judges wrote comments on their scoring cards like “very innovative” and “by far the best robot.”
The theme this year was improving the health, vitality and productivity of our oceans.
At first team members said they thought-- oh, man, the ocean...that’s so far away from here.
The Botzealots hit the books and Internet and soon learned that what happens in Minnesota most definitely affects ocean systems.
They put together a color tri-fold brochure explaining ways of reducing run-off and erosion of topsoil in communities. The information is based on interviews with Chisago County zoning officials and the team’s research into best management practices.
They chose to focus on run-off because it is a major negative factor deteriorating ocean health.
Chisago County is a fast-growing community where development here will continue to impact the “dead zone” in the Gulf, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, their brochure states.
The youngsters wrote in the brochure about using permeable pavers which let stormwater permeate back into the soil and do not generate the gush of run-off like bituminous does.
They described rain gardens and their uses and wrote about utilizing wetland septic systems and other plant-oriented practices to absorb stormwater and wastewater.
The robotic portion of the competition is standardized and requires using Lego parts.
Each robot is scored on successfully completed tasks-- which it does alone-- these are not remote-controlled units, they are operated by programming inserted into their bodies. The robots are powered on a standardized pack of rechargeable AA batteries.
The course size and robot’s tasks are standardized as well.
This year the robots had to perform a variety of tasks that would be applicable to oceanographic activities.
The whole thing happens under a pretty tight timeframe, offering participants firsthand experience in time management and organizational skills. The year’s theme and details are announced September 12 and the first tournament is held in November.
The First Lego League competition program is divided into age categories. Botzealots are in grades 7 through 9. The other division is for grades four through six. Teams are no larger than 10 members.
For two of the eight Botzealot members this marked their second year participating and the rest have been together for three years. Two additional locally home-school teams also compete in this program, that enjoys sponsorship from numerous high-tech Fortune 500 firms.
When asked who their feared competitor is-- one coach’s response was that the Botzealots compete against themselves.
Mike Siemsen said the team members motivate each other to go that extra mile, read the article they haven’t yet read and perfect the robot operation program...which they write themselves on a home computer.
Should you wish to learn more there’s a Website, which naturally, the youngsters built themselves at www.botzealots.org.
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