Lego Robotics

Chase had the opportunity to be in a new club at our school this year, Lego Robotics.  He applied and was one of 10 kids chosen to be in this club.  His team has been working for months leading up to the big competition that took place yesterday in Carson City.  His job on the team was one of 3 coders.  They were the lucky ones that got to be there really early before everyone else.

These boys have to code their robot  the team built (EV3) to move on the competition board, by using lots of math and measuring to figure out the right calculations to get it to work.

The really great part of this is the adults let the boys do ALL  the work, they sit back and let them fail sometimes so they learn how to fix any problems that arise.  It's pretty neat to watch.

When their codes were in they were able to test their robot for several practice runs.  I love the look of confidence these boys had.

The theme for this year was Trash Trek, and so all the challenges were based on trash cleanup and recycling.  This is the best view I could get of the competition board.  It's pretty elaborate if you know what your looking at.

Once the robot is coded, they have to put in the program to make it move.

There are 4 other parts of this competition that are judged throughout the day.  They have 3 different interview sessions, which they each have to speak at (without the help of their coach's and, parents are not allowed to watch).  They really have to know their stuff.    There were 22 schools there competing, which meant there was a lot of waiting around for the parents.  Kyle came by to hang out for awhile which I think Matt really appreciated.

I had plenty of mom's and teacher's to chat with.

 

Although there is so much to be judged on, the main event to watch is the robot competitions.  There are 3 rounds on different tables, where there are only 2 minutes to complete as many challenges as possible. 

 

Our whole team was ready to cheer on our coders on the sidelines (only 2 people are allowed at the table to touch the robot).

You could almost feel the nervousness of these boys hoping their codes were gonna work.

Chase got to be the programmer 2 out of 3 rounds...lucky boy!

It was a great team effort and they all did a great job.  Left without a trophy, but learned so much.

We are so thankful we have teacher's willing to put in all the time to help teach something not required, but so rewarding.