Students with Lego robots address real-world problems

CEDAR RAPIDS — Middle school students from Cedar Rapids will be competing Saturday to complete tasks with robots they’ve built out of Lego bricks and, at the same time, present solutions to real-world problems they’ve been researching this school year.

“I think it’s really cool because we’re building Legos, doing a competition at the same time and doing an innovation project around the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Rory Hinkle, one of the competitors.

Rory, 11, is part of the Prairie Creek Intermediate School’s First Lego League Challenge team, Built By Bricks. The challenge is the middle-school division of the First program, a nonprofit that promotes STEM learning around the world.

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The contest Saturday will consist of multiple parts, including the presentation of solutions the teams have researched for their innovation projects.

Built By Bricks has been working on a way to reduce chemical runoff in the Gulf of Mexico that causes dead zones where marine life can’t survive. They’ve spent the semester growing plants that could serve as alternatives to grass on lawns and farmland, to test if plants with thicker and longer roots could reduce the amount of runoff that enters rivers and the ocean.

“These are passion projects at this point because these kids spend a lot of time researching and a lot of time figuring out what is already going on in the world with the problems that they’re trying to solve, and then they come up with something that they want to see as a real thing at some point,” said Tamara Strecker, the Cedar Rapids First Lego League volunteer organizer and a robotics coach at Prairie High School.

Building robots

The other part of the Saturday competition involves students presenting their Lego robot, which they’ve coded to complete a series of small missions that emulate problems faced by real-world scientists.

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This year’s problems are related to ocean exploration, and the robots are built to complete missions like transporting aquatic life to safe habitats.

The teams will be awarded points based on the performance and design of their robot, the quality of their innovation project and their ability to work together as a team. The teams who score the highest in each category will advance to statewide competition in February, where they could qualify for international events.

“The amount of growth that I see in these kids is just incredible. They come in, and maybe they're a little shy to present their ideas, and then by the end of this, they're presenting in front of judges. They're presenting in front of people that are excited to hear them,” Strecker said.

Twenty-four teams are registered to compete on Saturday. Some are school teams, from both private and public schools, and others come from Scout troops and 4-H programs.

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‘Overcome so much’

This is the first year that Prairie Creek Intermediate has had a First Lego League team. Bryce Cox, a science teacher at the school who volunteered to coach the team, said he’s been impressed by how devoted the students are to their projects.

“We’ve overcome so much,” Cox said. “Learning how to work together as a team has been huge and figuring out like which student is good at what types of tasks.

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“Some are very good with building attachments. Some are very good with forming ideas or conducting research. It’s sweet to see how everyone has their own strengths in our huge process.”

For the students, working toward this competition has been an exciting way to challenge themselves while having fun and learning new things.

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Nolan Williams, a 11-year-old student on the Built By Bricks team, said because of the projects the team has done this semester, he’s now thinking about being an engineer when he grows up.

“The robotics part is fun,” Nolan said. “I love robotics. Lego has always been one of my favorite things. It just feels like you’re hanging out with some of your friends for an hour or two, and you get to do some stuff that you normally don’t get to do.”

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