Testing critical thinking skills

Lafaytte's team, back row, from left: Keith Bimbi, Ryan Lucey, Charlie Toepfer, Samantha Lange, Mikayla Schappert, Julia Tomlinson. Front row, from left: Caleigh Fortunato, Gavin Waple, Daniel Banas, Marisa Puzina
Children study a problem and then build a robot to fix it

Lafayette ? Twelve teams of robot makers comprised of fifth- through eighth-graders from various towns in Sussex County rose to the challenge posed by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and Lego at a FIRST Lego Tournament held at Lafayette Township School last Saturday. Each year FIRST announces a new theme for the competition, based upon a real-life problem that scientists and researchers are currently trying to solve. The theme for 2011 is The Food Factor Challenge, and teams worked to find a way to minimize disease and pathogens in food using robotics.

According to Pete Domasky of Sparta, one of the Pope John robotics team managers, each team must first investigate the topic to discover a problem that they can solve by designing a robot, a playing field and programming the robot to complete certain tasks. For example, research conducted by the Pope John team included a field trip to a farm where they learned how different types of disease invaded agriculture. Ultimately, the Pope John team decided to build a laser that would destroy pathogens and disease on food that was being transported by conveyor belts.

The Lafayette team, "looked at the problem of contaminated lettuce and all the recent recalls of bagged lettuce," said their coach Nancy Estevez. "Their solution was to build a device that tumbled the lettuce in ozone gas, which killed contaminants. It is like a salad spinner, but is installed inside the refrigerator. The device also included an ecoli indicator, which turns blue if any of the bacteria is present on the lettuce."

This was the first year Lafayette's team, the Kung Food Fighters, participated in the event. "They were rookies," said Estevez, "but they did an excellent job. In the Robot Games Lafayette came in 10th, and in the Project they scored 39 out of a possible 40 points."

Scoring

There are 15 possible tasks that can be accomplished during the Robot Games part of the challenge, but teams can choose how many they want to do. Points are awarded for each task completed within a 2.5-minute time frame. The playing field and robot are built using Legos and Lego-based attachments; programming is done via the “block” which is inserted into the robot and contains the computer module.

“The Food Factor Challenge is not really a competition,” says Domasky. “Two teams, working side-by-side, put their robots through the paces. Both teams are working independently, doing their own thing. But, all of the kids are acquiring building, engineering and strategic thinking skills.”

What the program is all about

“The best way to summarize First Lego League is to say that it is a robotics program for 9- to 14-year-olds, which is designed to get children excited about science and technology ? and teach them valuable employment and life skills. [It] can be used in a classroom setting but is not solely designed for this purpose. Teams, composed of up to 10 children with at least one adult coach, can also be associated with a pre-existing club or organization, homeschooled or just be a group of friends who wish to do something awesome.

... Teams of up to 10 children, with one adult coach, participate in the Challenge by programming an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field (Robot Game), developing a solution to a problem they have identified (Project), all guided by the First Lego League Core Values. Teams may then choose to attend an official tournament.”