D15 LEGO TEAMS SOLVE PROBLEMS FACING SENIORS: Thomas Jefferson’s effort sends it to state tournament

Thanks to the generous support of the Motorola Solutions Foundation®, 10 teams from District 15 took part this year in the FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge.

District 15’s LEGO teams are sponsored by the District Fifteen Educational Foundation, which received a $12,000 grant from the Motorola Solutions Foundation, the charitable arm of Motorola Solutions, Inc., as part of Motorola’s Innovation Generation grant program. Since 2001, the Foundation has received 10 grants from Motorola Solutions Foundation totaling nearly $110,000.

FIRST LEGO League challenges are comprised of two parts. The most well known portion of the challenge is the two-and-a-half-minute robot game that takes place on a themed playing field. Lesser known but equally important to a team’s success is the research project portion of the challenge. It requires teams to explore an actual problem that today’s scientists and engineers are trying to solve, develop an innovative solution to that problem (either by creating something that doesn’t exist or building upon something that does), and share their findings. The team that does the best in both the robot and project portions of the competition wins the challenge, and challenges are held at the regional, state, and national levels.

The theme of this year’s FIRST LEGO League Challenge, “Senior Solutions,” required teams to research, develop, and share their ideas to improve the quality of life for seniors, and, using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology, to build, test, and program an autonomous robot to manage a mix of challenges and activities related to helping seniors continue to be independent, engaged, or connected in their communities.

Highlights from recent regional competitions included the following:

THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL

The “TJ Scientists,” Thomas Jefferson School’s LEGO team, qualified to compete at the state tournament by turning in an all-around impressive performance at their regional competition. The team did not place at the state competition, but “we did very well, considering it was our first time competing in that tournament,” said Eric Brents, the team’s coach.

“We learned a lot about teamwork and the spirit of cooperation,” he said. “They have a better understanding of gracious professionalism and understand the core values the LEGO League follows.”

At the robot table, the TJ Scientists posted the competition’s second-highest score of 315 points. Also, during the technical judging portion of the robot game, the students won the “Best Designed Robot Award” by fully explaining the robot they built.

For the project portion of the challenge, the team focused its research primarily on memory loss seniors suffer as they age. The TJ Scientists researched ways to help seniors with memory problems like finding their car keys or locating their glasses. They developed a locating device called the GPS 3000 that seniors could attach to these items to easily locate them with a touch of a button. 

WINSTON CAMPUS ELEMENTARY

The Unicorn Eagle Warriors—Winston Campus Elementary’s LEGO team—took home the award for best research project during their regional competition.

The team spent several days interviewing and researching senior citizens for its project, and it found that nutrition is one of the biggest problems seniors face. They often don’t drink enough fluids or eat properly.

“Our team invented a ‘Smart Watch’ that reads a senior citizen’s nutrition and hydration levels and gives them signals and reminders to drink fluids and eat nutritious meals throughout the day,” said Kim Haas, the team’s coach.

PLuM GROVE JUNIOR HIGH

STEAM, Plum Grove Junior High’s League team, entered its regional competition with excitement, but soon encountered a major setback that nearly kept it from competing.

“While performing its first practice run, the team noticed that the walls of the table were painted black, so their program, which used a light sensor, wouldn’t work,” said Sharon Lennstrom, their coach. “This caught the team off guard and brought spirits down, but that’s when the team really came together.”

With this huge obstacle in its path, STEAM didn’t panic. Instead, it paused to re-evaluate its strengths and focus on what it could do, not what its problems were, said Mrs. Lennstrom.

“They wrote and rewrote more programs in that one day than they had in the entire season!” she said. “Some were successful and some were not.”

CARL SANDBURG JUNIOR HIGH

As part of its research project, Carl Sandburg Junior High’s LEGO team welcomed several members of Prospect Height’s Emeritus Senior Living Community into Sandburg’s new STEM computer lab for an after-school computer training session. Students showed their senior guests to computer stations and led them through the tutorials on Google Earth, Microsoft Office basics, iPad photography, computer buying basics, Google Chrome tips and tricks, and Internet geneology.

HUNTING RIDGE SCHOOL

The Hawks—Hunting Ridge School’s LEGO team—demonstrated great collaboration and sportsmanship at the regional competition.

“While there, they presented their research project about a senior center attached to an animal shelter in which seniors had varying levels of responsibilities for taking animals outside and providing training,” said Shane Jensen, the team’s coach.

JANE ADDAMS SCHOOL

Jane Addams School’s LEGO team had a great time competing in the robot portion of its regional competition, but it was the team’s outstanding presentation of an innovative idea to improve the lives of seniors that made it stand out from its opponents.

“Our research project explored the design of a cane to help give seniors an extra boost when they are getting up from the ground,” said Gabrielle Devlin, the team’s coach. “The team created an iBook to share this idea with the judges via an iPad.”

VIRGINIA LAKE SCHOOL

Team OGEL, Virginia Lake School’s LEGO team—enjoyed working together to build its robot and program it to run many successful missions, said Steve Marquis, the team’s coach.

“Overall, I believe the kids had a ton of fun and learned a great deal about working together and coming up with valuable solutions to problems,” he said.

-Story Submitted by Community Consolidated School District 15