CHRONICLE 16-17 ISSUE 08
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Campus chronicle.durhamcollege.ca January 24 - 30, 20<strong>17</strong> The Chronicle 11<br />
'Technology stars' battle it out in LEGO League<br />
Barbara Howe<br />
The Chronicle<br />
Hundreds of aspiring young scientists<br />
descended on Durham College<br />
recently for the 20<strong>16</strong> FIRST LEGO<br />
League Ontario East Provincial<br />
Championships. The event brought<br />
40 teams of elementary students<br />
aged nine to 14 together to pitch<br />
their autonomous robots, built from<br />
LEGO pieces, against each other in<br />
a series of challenges.<br />
Justine Lam, a student from Forest<br />
Hill P.S. in Toronto, said her<br />
team, “Batteries Not Included,”<br />
had a small chance of winning at<br />
its first time at the provincial championships.<br />
“It’s about the experience. It’s not<br />
whether we get placed or not. We’re<br />
just going to try our best,” said Lam.<br />
FIRST LEGO League is a<br />
non-profit organization created by<br />
Dean Kamen with a goal of inspiring<br />
young minds to love science,<br />
technology and mathematics with<br />
a view to choosing it as an exciting<br />
and engaging career choice.<br />
Dave Ellis, director of the FIRST<br />
LEGO League, has been involved<br />
with the organization for 12 years.<br />
“We celebrate our sports heroes<br />
and our movie stars, but we don’t<br />
celebrate our technology stars,”<br />
said Ellis. “There was nothing to<br />
get kids excited about technology.<br />
There was no event where kids got<br />
to be inspired.”<br />
Ellis explained the program has<br />
three components.<br />
First there is a research project<br />
where the students research a problem<br />
relating to the annual theme.<br />
This year’s theme is Animal Allies.<br />
Examples of some of the projects<br />
submitted include an app, which<br />
tracks lost pets through an electronic<br />
collar, a weighing machine for<br />
dogs which spits out the appropriate<br />
portion of food dependent on the<br />
animal’s weight, and a dehumidifier<br />
for a beehive.<br />
The second component is the robot<br />
design where the teams design,<br />
build and program autonomous<br />
LEGO robots to perform a series<br />
of missions.<br />
Lastly, students are encouraged to<br />
develop core values which include<br />
life skills which honour the spirit of<br />
friendly competition and respect.<br />
There were cheers, whistles and<br />
even some tears from the hundreds<br />
of supporting teams, parents and<br />
coaches who crowded around the<br />
corral surrounding the competition<br />
tables, as the robots bumped around<br />
the courses.<br />
Austin and Mackenzie Bailey and<br />
David Feenstra are three homeschooled<br />
students who travelled<br />
from Kingston to take part in the<br />
challenge. Their “Home Grown”<br />
team is so concerned about the depleting<br />
honey bee population that<br />
they designed a dehumidifier to<br />
attach to a standard hive.<br />
The simple idea adds an extra<br />
layer full of wood shavings and a<br />
black painted roof which allows<br />
moisture and heat to escape through<br />
vents. Together with a thermostatically-controlled<br />
heating mat, the<br />
hive is kept dry and mite-free which<br />
prevents disease infecting the colony.<br />
The winner of the event moves to<br />
the FIRST LEGO League World<br />
Festival in St. Louis, in April.<br />
r<br />
Photograph by Barbara Howe<br />
Mackenzie Bailey (left) and David Feenstra get set to battle with their robots in their FIRST LEGO League eastern provincial<br />
championship at Durham College.
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