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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Remote Control: The PrograMasters from Booksin Elementary (from left, Eric Doolan, Travis Wolf, Paul Greiner, Ian Isaacson and Christian Finley) run last-minute light tests on their robot at the Dec. 3 tournament.
Booksin students win robotics trophy
By Darienne J. Hosley
The air was tense. Four 9-year-old boys crowded together, checking wires, pushing buttons, tinkering with different tools.
They faced a serious task for children so young: They were trying to rescue a scientist from a volcano on the verge of erupting, and then they needed to protect a small village from the cascading lava.
Their eyes followed a robot as it putt-putted over to the scientist, scooped up the researcher's buggy with a mechanical arm, then returned to home base. They redirected their life-saving machine toward a village of red houses and tall pine trees, and again watched intently, urging the robot on, and cheering as it knocked out a bridge and gate to block the lava.
Christopher McCarthy grinned as his teammates on the Hot Lava Ground Troop Rescuers whooped and cheered in the Booksin Elementary School cafeteria.
"Good job, Chris," said Terry Kelly, one of the parents coaching the team. "One hundred and sixty-five points."
For two months, the fourth-graders had worked together to build and program a yellow and black robot, using Lego blocks, sensors and motors. Another team of fourth- and fifth-graders had done the same, and both groups demonstrated their new high-tech skills in FIRST Lego League tournaments on Dec. 2 and 3.
High-tech recruiters may want to keep an eye on these youngsters.
"If someone told me, 'Here's some Legos. Go ahead and do it,' I'd still be reading the manual," said parent Nancy Kerbel. "But they understand it. It just comes easy to them."
The tournaments challenge 9- to 14-year-olds to create autonomous robots using special Lego Mindstorm kits. The program is a collaboration between the Danish toymaker and the nonprofit organization FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
The third year of tournaments drew nearly 70 teams to the San Jose State University Event Center on Dec. 3. There were 27 teams from San Jose Unified School District, including the Booksin PrograMasters--fourth-graders Eric Dooling and Travis Wolf, and fifth-graders Christian Finley, Paul Greiner and Ian Issacson. The district brought home 11 awards.
The Hot Lava Ground Troop Rescuers--Nicholas Bruno, Devin Kelly, Eddie Kerbel, Mike Maietta and Christopher McCarthy--traveled to Legoland in Carlsbad on Dec. 2. They were the youngest of 30 teams there and the first that day to rescue the scientist and bring him back to base safely before the lava--represented by marbles--spilled across the 4-by-8-foot playing field.
"That was the most points," said Booksin Principal Wendy Carlson, who attended both competitions. "A lot of teams skipped that because it was also the hardest."
They brought home a first runner-up trophy that will be displayed at the school once each boy has had an opportunity to bring it home for a night.
Parents were an important part of the project, serving as coaches in twice-weekly practices, and offering their own skills as programmers, engineers and carpenters to help out.
At the competitions, teams had to employ the skills they honed during the previous eight weeks: concentration, creative thinking and cooperation. They had created their own playing fields, assembling a cardboard volcano with marbles as lava, but they had to recalibrate and reprogram their robots at the tournaments to make them work.
The Ground Troop Rescuers grabbed a cell phone to consult with their coach, Brandon Lewis, from Lincoln High School.
He had participated in the FIRST Lego Robotics Competition for high school students last year.
"The electronics are a little more expensive and powerful than you get here," said Lewis, who is a junior. He offered technical expertise to the fledgling programmers and engineers at Booksin.
A robotics kit at the high school level costs $5,000, and the elementary school kits are $325 each. A parent paid for the equipment for both of Booksin's teams this year, but Carlson said she hopes to secure a corporate sponsor in future years.
"Corporations are the ones out there looking for the scientists and engineers," she said, "and programs like this inspire children to pursue those careers."
Both teams will demonstrate their robots before the classmates, Carlson said, and she plans an evening demonstration so parents of third- and fourth-graders can consider getting involved next year.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
