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See a video on the event.
Dunkerton students Seth Pipho, left, and Mitchell Winkers prepare to release their Lego creation on its programmed tasks during the Lego League competition at Holmes Junior High School in Cedar Falls Saturday 12/06/2008. (RICK CHASE/ WATERLOO COURIER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Tackling robots
By JEFF REINITZ, Courier Staff Writer
CEDAR FALLS --- Students gathered around a table at Holmes Junior High School and watched as a robot the size of a paperback book zipped around a miniature terrain.
The wheels let out a short whine as the robot lurched forward a few inches, stopped, made a right turn and continued on its course, pushing Lego bricks into a marked section of the table.
Team members cheered.
The small machine was part of the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology --- FIRST for short --- qualifying competition for students ages 9 to 14.
Twenty teams from middle schools across Northeast Iowa played for a chance to advance to the state competition Jan. 17 at Iowa State University in Ames.
Bruce Newendorp, a FIRST volunteer and a John Deere engineer by day, said the program is designed to instill the team spirit and excitement of sports into science competitions.
Saturday's event included four phases.
Students had to tell judges about how they built and programmed their robots during an interview, give a presentation related to climate and perform a mystery task as a team.
But the largest draw was the Lego robotics competition.
Three months ago, the teams were given the specifications for the course along with a basic Lego NXT kit and a box of spare parts.
From there, students had to design, build and program a robot to tackle tasks in the course.
One called for delivering a polar bear figure to the winter part of the table. Another involved retrieving a ring that represented an ice core sample.
In another area, a Lego house is in danger of rising water.
"You raise the house to keep it from flooding," Newendorp said.
Teams' robots had two and a half minutes to complete as many tasks as possible. There was no remote control, and students weren't allowed to touch the robots until they returned to the "base" part of the table.
Tray Forsyth, 14, of CC Robots of Charles City, said it was challenging.
"Everything has to be exact," he said. "One thing can change your entire game. It takes a lot of testing."
Sometimes a robot would clip an object on the table and be sent off course.
Connor Spading, 13, said the team worked on the robot, which they named Ms. Lynch after the school secretary, for 45 minutes at a time during study hall.
For more information on FIRST, go to the organization's Web site at www.usfirst.org.
Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578
or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.
The wheels let out a short whine as the robot lurched forward a few inches, stopped, made a right turn and continued on its course, pushing Lego bricks into a marked section of the table.
Team members cheered.
The small machine was part of the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology --- FIRST for short --- qualifying competition for students ages 9 to 14.
Twenty teams from middle schools across Northeast Iowa played for a chance to advance to the state competition Jan. 17 at Iowa State University in Ames.
Bruce Newendorp, a FIRST volunteer and a John Deere engineer by day, said the program is designed to instill the team spirit and excitement of sports into science competitions.
Saturday's event included four phases.
Students had to tell judges about how they built and programmed their robots during an interview, give a presentation related to climate and perform a mystery task as a team.
But the largest draw was the Lego robotics competition.
Three months ago, the teams were given the specifications for the course along with a basic Lego NXT kit and a box of spare parts.
From there, students had to design, build and program a robot to tackle tasks in the course.
One called for delivering a polar bear figure to the winter part of the table. Another involved retrieving a ring that represented an ice core sample.
In another area, a Lego house is in danger of rising water.
"You raise the house to keep it from flooding," Newendorp said.
Teams' robots had two and a half minutes to complete as many tasks as possible. There was no remote control, and students weren't allowed to touch the robots until they returned to the "base" part of the table.
Tray Forsyth, 14, of CC Robots of Charles City, said it was challenging.
"Everything has to be exact," he said. "One thing can change your entire game. It takes a lot of testing."
Sometimes a robot would clip an object on the table and be sent off course.
Connor Spading, 13, said the team worked on the robot, which they named Ms. Lynch after the school secretary, for 45 minutes at a time during study hall.
For more information on FIRST, go to the organization's Web site at www.usfirst.org.
Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578
or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.
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IowaHawk1969 wrote on Dec 7, 2008 12:49 PM: