Students build LEGO robots for competition
BUTLER TWP — A competition organized by Butler County Community College and Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Academy is blurring the lines between work and play by bringing to life multicolored plastic toy blocks.
"You get to play with LEGOs and robots," said Phil Kletzli, 14, an eighth-grade student at Butler Catholic School. "It's really fun."
Kletzli was a programmer on the school's "Geek Squad" team.
Middle school teams, composed of 10 students and an instructor, built robots made primarily of LEGOs, the snap-together kids construction blocks. They were then challenged to program the robots' individual movements, using a laptop, to perform various tasks.
"You have to maneuver that thing perfectly, or close to it, to get it to do the tasks," said BC3 math professor Evie Barnes of the pre-made LEGO robots.
The FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — Lego League competition Saturday focused on energy management and conservation. Robots were designed to carry out missions focusing on tree planting, alternative power generation, coal mining and oil drilling.
One goal of Lego League competitions is to help children understand the environmental, social and cultural impacts of the world's energy use, and work to improve it.
"Right now, our country is begging for engineering graduates," Barnes said. "We're hoping to entice children to pursue that."
Butler Catholic programmer Brendan Camp, 13, said he returned to compete this year because last year's event was so much fun. Team builder Benjamin McKnight, 14, is also a veteran programmer on the team.
"Building is easier for me because I played with LEGOs when I was younger," McKnight said.
If these middle-schoolers talked like adults, it is nothing compared to how they performed in the competition and "pit" areas, tweaking designs and programming last minute instructions with the cooperation of CMU students twice their age. Most designs featured a functional boom arm and a plow-like device to accomplish tasks.
"They wanted to do something more," said Ray Mitch, instructor of the St. Wendelin's "Determined Angels" squad.
The team had learned programming in science class, but raised $360 to buy the more advanced LEGO robot needed to compete.
"They are very nervous," said Mitch of his first-year team.
The fifth through eighth grade students have participated in four practice rounds to prepare for the state competition Dec. 1 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Other competing schools included Avonworth Middle School, Derry Area Middle School and Queen of Apostles.
Barnes said she hopes to start science-oriented initiatives in Butler area schools through the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program, or STEM for short.
"We have the perfect place to hold something like this," said Barnes. "We're planning to beef it up even more next year and have more teams."
BC3, with the help of CMU and federal grant money, has state-of-the-art technology and is eager to share it with the community in most classrooms and labs. Last summer, the campus hosted the Robotics Educators Conference.
Bessie Jeffries, also a math professor at BC3, has been involved in the Lego program for more than five years, mostly with the Girl Scouts. "This is a chance for these kids to compete in something they're good at," Jeffries said.
The FIRST Lego League is an international organization and has elementary and high school divisions.
