Thirteen Florida and Alabama teams, with names like the Terra Bytes, WildBots, Robonauts and BayBots, met at Surfside Middle School with hopes of qualifying for the statewide Lego competition in February.
Kathy Jones and Jay Buddi, preengineering teachers at Surfside, have been working with the students since September to prepare for the contest. The event was the first Florida Lego League qualifying tournament held in Northern Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
Participants, all between the ages of 10 and 14, were tasked with creating a robot and with researching and resolving a problem within their communities. They presented their research projects and put their robots to work at the qualifier.
Robots were evaluated on design and performance. Volunteer judges also awarded points to machines that successfully completed missions, such as crossing a Lego bridge.
Students also had to demonstrate their ability to work well in teams. They were presented with a problem they hadn't seen before -- building a mode of transportation from things like egg cartons and golf balls -- and scored on teamwork.
Surfside team members said they worried most about how their robots would fare against those of other teams.
"The nerve-wracking waiting is the hardest part," Court Rogers, 12, said. "You can't see what the other teams are doing." "But, mostly, it's just a competition against yourself, to test yourself," Meredith Bush, 13, added.
Ed Kloess, an engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, judged the teams. He said he was impressed by the students.
"They've come a really long way, both in their programming skills and in their understanding of problem solving," Kloess said. "It's been phenomenal." Forthefourthprongofthecompetition,most teamsperformedskitstopresenttheirresearch projects. Surfside's two teams, the BayBots and the PiBots, focused on transportation issues.
The BayBots developed a plan to resolve traffic backups at the campus, while the PiBots pitched their ideas on how to improve bike lanes to members of the Bay County Chamber of Commerce.
The BayBots presented their plan to the school's principal last week; it's already been implemented and is working well, Jones said.
Although Surfside's two teams won first place and best overall at Saturday's event, Jones said the students won't be heading to the next regional meet. They attended a qualifying meet in Central Florida in the fall, she said, and can't afford to make the trip again.
Instead, teams from the Junior Museum and Oakland Terrace Elementary School in Panama City, and from Holy Comforter Episcopal School in Tallahassee, were invited to compete in the state qualifier.
Source:tmcnet.com/
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