Starting Early-Junior Robotics!

While Shelton High School Robotics Team members spend six weeks constructing a robot with power drills and wires, Shelton Intermediate School LEGO League members spend eight weeks building a mini-bot out of, guess what...? Legos! FIRST has not only created an organization to help high school students become involved in science and technology, but a program to enlist younger students to the cause as well.

FIRST LEGO League, labeled "Sports for the Mind," is part of FIRST?s Jr. Robotics program, in partnership with LEGO. Meant for children ages 9-14, FIRST is expanding its horizons to include not only students at the high school level, but also at the elementary and intermediate levels. "We need to show kids that it's more fun to design and create a video game than to play one," says FIRST founder Dean Kamen, echoing many of the people involved in the program across the country.

This year?s LEGO League game is Mission Mars, complete with a red-planet map and space-like missions. Intermediate School students can choose to exit the base, launch a canister, connect "habitation modules," complete an "alliance habitation module," move "ice cores," or move boulders. Teams will have two minutes to complete as many missions as they can. Many teams will opt to perform one or two tasks and complete them fully to gain points.

Teams will also have to complete a research project pertaining to the Mars subject. They will have to present answers to important questions related to their missions, and explain why their design for a robot expedition will solve their problem. The research projects could be about the landing site, Mars ice cores, the MAV Launcher, habitation modules, alliances and robot recovery. Students can get truly involved in the game and learn new things about the real Mission Mars during the exploration and completion of the research project.

Shelton Intermediate School?s own LEGO League is made up of two separate teams, each constructing their own version of a LEGO robot. The team is mentored by one of Shelton Intermediate School?s seventh grade science teachers, Mr. Swercewski. There are sixteen people in the League, eight on each team, working on two separate robots. A distinct difference between both of them is the use of tires on one and tank threads on the other. Students will come up with their own game plans, decide which missions they want to accomplish, and program the robot all by themselves. The Gaelhawks have gotten involved with the Shelton Intermediate School LEGO League, walking down to the middle school every Tuesday to help the students with organization and design implementation.

If even a few students move up to the high school and join the Robotics team, our mission is accomplished. The FIRST LEGO League "inspires children around the world to work together, use their creativity and engage in real world problems and opportunities." It is the FIRST step to becoming involved in the Robotics Competition ? starting young is the way to go!