Mililani school takes robot to competition
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
These are not your little brother's Legos.
Armed with a 4-foot by 8-foot urban cityscape built from plywood, a robot constructed from Lego parts and a complex strategy, six students from Mililani Middle School left yesterday for a competition in California that will test their team building, problem solving, creativity, and analytical thinking.
The mission: Solve several urban challenges by programming their Lego robot to do everything from cleaning up toxic waste and harvesting food to delivering building materials to a construction site on their cityscape.
And do it in less than three minutes.
During preparations in Mililani Middle School teacher Sara Tamayose's technology classroom, the Lego know-how at work looks nothing like child's play. The battery-operated robot is built of the boxy Lego parts that many adults would recognize from their childhood, but others that are more sophisticated: wheels, shovels, pinchers and the intricate pieces that bind everything together.
The Mililani students followed the construction plans for the cityscape and then had to figure out how to build and program a robot that could perform various tasks: removing "boulders" from a soccer field, making a windmill spin to create energy and picking "food" from Lego palm trees.
"It's strategy," said Tamayose. "They've got to figure out the most efficient path."
Megan Watanabe, 13, said it's impossible to do all of the tasks in the allotted 2.5-minute time period, so team members have been trying to figure out which tasks will earn them the most points.
"It can be hard sometimes, but everyone helps out," said Nicolas Hamamoto, 13, the main programmer of the group.
Each September, First Lego League teams around the world accept a challenge, which involves them in hands-on robotics design and scientific research. After eight weeks, the FLL season culminates at high-energy, sports-like tournaments around the country.
The Mililani students looked for a local competition first, but couldn't find one. Aina Haina Elementary was the only other school they could find that participates in the Lego robotics program, but a contest between just two schools didn't sound like much fun.
So the Hawai'i students had to look elsewhere. With about 30 state competitions being held around the country, the closest one to Hawai'i is in Carlsbad, Calif. The team, which also includes Jasmine Pang, 11, Jaclyn Pang, 13, Jarrick Hayashi, 12, and Spencer Wong, 13, have been fund-raising all fall to help pay for the trip.
