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Robotics growing to new heights in Clay schools

Sarah Wakefield Rosser
Posted 1/13/16

ORANGE PARK – Plugging the robot into a computer between rounds, Taylor Oberfoell tweaked the coding instructions slightly to increase the number of wheel rotations her team’s robot needed to …

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Robotics growing to new heights in Clay schools


Posted

ORANGE PARK – Plugging the robot into a computer between rounds, Taylor Oberfoell tweaked the coding instructions slightly to increase the number of wheel rotations her team’s robot needed to complete the mission of pushing the Lego octopus back into its circular habitat.

“The octopus has to go straight into the circle,” Oberfoell, 12, said. “If it’s not in the circle, you don’t get the points. Before, it was at 6.1 rotations and that’s why it didn’t go as far. I increased the rotations to 6.2 so it will go a little bit farther and actually make it inside the circle.”

Oberfoell and her team from Tynes Elementary were one of 17 teams competing in the regional First Lego League robotics competition. The fourth annual local event held Jan. 8 at the Thrasher-Horne Conference Center was the largest to date and included teams from Clay, Nassau, Columbia and Duval counties.

After tweaking the code, or directions, and increasing the wheel rotations, the team earned additional points in round three, according to Oberfoell’s teammate Kennedy Young, 11.

“Round three went a lot better,” Young said. “We got the truck and everything we wanted so this round was much better.”

Teams of 10 students prepared for as many as three months or as few as two weeks for this year’s regional competition that blends science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM subjects. Students programmed code to weave their robots through a predetermined obstacle course to earn up to 600 possible points. Most teams at the event scored around 300 points. Missions related to this year’s overall theme of Trash Trek determined by the First Lego League, an international organization that encourages children to solve complex tasks with creativity and teamwork. Prior to the competition, each team received a map of the obstacle course and designed the missions accordingly.

“For the people mission, we have to drop the Lego people into the career station,” said Kelly Brown, a fifth grader at Middleburg Elementary whose team named their robot Pirate. “For the truck mission, we have to push the truck and dump the contents. For the turtle mission, you have to take a plastic bag out of his habitat. For the composting mission, you’re supposed to push a button and a composting hockey puck will come out and you have to drag it back to home base.”

At the heart of the league are values such as inclusion, cooperation and professionalism. To verify that teammates treat each other respectfully and work together, judges in three separate categories asked students to talk about the coding and to run the robot through a couple of missions. Each team also played a game focused on communication and teamwork to see how well they interact. In the third judging room, teams presented a research project tackling this year’s world problem of waste.

“It doesn’t have to be a problem in Clay County,” said Leslee Bryan, the regional leader of the robotics competition and a STEM curriculum specialist for the Clay County School District. “They could pick something from a third world country and they have to come up with a solution. If there is a solution in place they think they can [make] better, that’s okay too.”

For their research project, the team from Middleburg Elementary came up with the idea to replace their Styrofoam trays with biodegradable ones.

“The Styrofoam trays will sit in the landfill for 500 years,” said student Kaitlin Konnick. “We learned to work together to reduce the amount of waste to get it to where it’s not as bad.”

If a team has a robot or design capable of earning a high percentage of points or accomplishing a mission, all other teams are encouraged to inquire about the coding or design.

“If they go to the other team and say how did you do this, then that team is supposed to take it upon themselves to show the design and explain the programming behind it,” Bryan said. “Even though they’re sharing it, they know our playbook, they’ll be as good as us, the idea is they’re building yours and catching up to you. Your team should still be progressing. Sharing information is elevating everybody but you should continue to get better yourself.”

Even though teams hves two coaches, another goal of the competition is to show students that adults are lifelong learners.

“Teachers do not have the answers,” Bryan said. “We all learn together. It’s important to us as educators because most of our educators are not robotics people. The other thing is that even adults can learn and every person in society should be learning. A lot of times our students don’t see adults as learners.”

Middleburg Elementary fourth grade teacher and robotics coach Jenny Karably said her role in the club is more of a guide and she is still learning.

“It’s their programming so they have to figure it out,” she said. “We’re not even allowed to go into the judging rooms. We just guide them but they’re doing fabulous for their first year.”

Preparing for the competition helped Young from Tynes build professionalism, communication skills and self-confidence, things she said translated to her other classes.

“I was nervous to go up there but then I started to feel confident in myself and I gave it my all and tried my best,” Young said.

Young and Oberfoell earned spots on the Tynes robotic team simply by the luck of the draw. Some schools had as many as 40 applicants to join the school’s club and were required to write essays in addition to submitting an application.

“I feel really special that I actually get to be in robotics because they just do a hat drawing,” Oberfoell said. “If you put this in front of me two years ago, I would never had realized what this was or how to make it work.”