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High-level Legos - Students' software-controlled robots tackle climate change at tourney
Dec 09, 2008 (The Observer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The late Danish toy maker Ole Christiansen would have been stunned had he been at EOU Saturday.
Christiansen, who invented LEGOs in the 1930s, would have watched youths do once-unimaginable things with his toy building bricks -- make them come to life seemingly with artificial intelligence.
The youths, ages 9 to 14, did so while competing at the annual regional FIRST LEGO League robotics tournament at EOU.
About 120 students from the Cove, Elgin, Union, John Day, Monument and Umatilla school districts participated. Students maneuvered, via computer programs, robots in the spacious open central area of the EOU Science Center before judges and anxious teammates, coaches and parents.
Few events in the science center generate such excitement each year. Indeed, there was so much cheering at times it almost seemed as if a sporting event was taking place.
"It was elevated. It was an electric atmosphere,'' said Greg Poor, a Union High School science teacher who is the coordinator of the Union School District's involvement in the FIRST LEGO League program.
The atmosphere Poor and others spoke of lacked a "winning is the only thing'' feeling.
"A little girl said, 'We're not going to win. The other said, 'Who cares? We're having fun,'' said EOU computer science professor Frederick Pratter, who helped put on the tournament.
Climate change was the theme of this year's tournament. Students programmed their robots to complete 21 climate change-related tasks on an open table. Teams received points when their robots completed simulated tasks such as delivering a polar bear to an ice flow, placing insulation into a house, taking an ice core sample, making a levy higher and 17 other tasks.
Months before the competition students began creating computer programs that directed their robots to complete a portion of the 21 challenges. Each team's objective was to get their robot to complete as many of the tasks as possible in 2 1/2 minutes. Teams ran their robots through three 2 1/2-minute rounds. Only their highest scoring round counted toward their final score.
After each of the first two rounds, students adjusted their computer programs to get their robots to operate more efficiently. Those changes were critical since once a robot started a run on the course students had no control of it. Each robot was completely reliant on the computer program created for it. No adjustments could be made once a robot started a 2 1/2-minute round.
"It was not like operating a radio-controlled airplane,'' Pratter said.
Some students programmed showmanship into their robots. The John Day Techno Team's robot was perhaps the biggest ham. Its team members, all from Canyon City, programmed their robot to wave an arm after it was finished. It waved between rounds but never during actual competition because of a programming glitch.
"Unfortunately it ran into a wall (which prevented it from waving in the last round),'' said Rachel Bentz, a member of the John Day School District Techno Team.
EOU computer science professor Richard Croft, the tournament's director, saw their robot wave outside the competition and said he was impressed.
Teams did not receive extra points for programming showmanship into their robots. What they did receive additional points for was how they fared in three other areas, all of which carried significant weight:
--a presentation of a climate-related research project they conducted.
--providing quality answers in an interview with EOU professors and others about how the teams had programmed and engineered their robots.
--how they fared on a teamwork challenge. Teams were presented with a challenge they had no knowledge of before hand. Each team then had to respond to it in a limited amount of time.
The overall winner of the tournament was the Computadora Ella-bots team from Union High School. All six students on the team will qualify for a scholarship from EOU if they choose to attend Eastern and are admitted after graduating from high school. Each scholarship will provide a student $500 a year at EOU for four years.
The students on the winning Computadora Ella-bots team, all ninth-graders, are Emma Stockhoff, Stephanie Warren, Kathryn Hepler, Casi Sipp, Jordin Lineback and Elizabeth Sheehy.
A team from the Union School District has won the tournament four of the past five years. Poor said this reflects the efforts of the many district teachers and staff members who help prepare students for the tournament.
Poor is struck by the enthusiasm students show in preparing for the competition each year. He can think of few other academic programs that generate such excitement.
"I've had students stay on their own in my classroom until 6 p.m. (preparing for the tournament),'' Poor said.
Union's Computadora Ella-bots team was among seven at Saturday's regional competition that qualified for the state FIRST LEGO League Tournament Jan. 17-18 in Hillsboro.
Saturday's regional FIRST LEGO League qualifying tournament was the largest, in terms of participation, in the state, Croft said. Poor said that the tourney's success is a credit to excellent work done by EOU each year in putting it on.
Union School District had 13 of the 22 teams present at Saturday's tournament.
Cove had four teams, Elgin had two and Umatilla, Monument and John Day had one each.
Elgin's teams had been preparing for the tournament since August. Colt Silver, an Elgin eighth-grader, said that preparing for it created a closer bond between him and his buddies on the team.
"We're better friends now,'' the Stella Mayfield School student said.
Students in the Cove School District began getting ready for the tournament in early September. They worked 50 minutes a day four days a week in preparation, said Cameron McCowan, a Cove eighth-grader.
He said that the preparation and competition is exciting but also stressful.
"It is nerve wracking,'' he said.
It was also an experience that strengthened bonds of friendship.
"You end up understanding your real buddies a lot better,'' the Cove student said.
Cove Superintendent Jeff Clark, who accompanied his students to Saturday's competition, was impressed with the problem-solving skills they displayed and the enthusiasm they showed in the weeks leading up to the event.
"It is a great thing to see how excited they are and how they are talking about it,'' Clark said.
The FIRST LEGO League robotics program is now part of Cove's eighth-grade curriculum and will be added to its seventh-grade curriculum this spring. Clark said Cove is following the lead of the Union School District, which has made the FIRST LEGO League robotics program part of its curriculum for several years.
"We were inspired by Union,'' Clark said.
The Cove superintendent is impressed with the problem-solving skills students develop through their involvement in the program.
"You see a lot kids really grow,'' Clark said.
The superintendent also likes the way students in the robotics program have to actually create something from an idea.
"It is one thing to have an idea (for a product). It is another to build it.''
Champions Award: 1, Computadora Ella-bots, Union High School.
Runners up for Champions Award: Ace of Spades, Cove School District; Windowbots, Union High School; 4 e 8, Union High School; Climate Crime Stoppers, Union High School; and Cold Robots, Union High School.
Young Team Award: Husky Bots, Elgin School District.
Rookie Team Award: Old Folks, Union High School.
Robot Performance Award: Sons of Anarchy (and Nikoa), Cove School District.
Robot Design: Charlie's Fallen Angels, Cove School District.
Research Project: Global Robotics, Union High School.
Teamwork: Elgin Huskies, Elgin High School.
To see more of The Observer or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.lagrandeobserver.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Observer, La Grande,
Ore. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
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