Robotics competition offers Monterey Peninsula…
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Robotics competition offers Monterey Peninsula students glimpse of future
Pacific Grove Middle School students begin building a robot at Monterey High School on Saturday for competition in the FIRST Robotics Competition. - Tom Leyde — Herald Correspondent
Chris Hubbard, the parent of a Pacific Grove Middle School student, talks with students about ways to create safe drinking water. - Tom Leyde — Herald Correspondent
Topher Mueller of Chartwell School talks with Pacific Grove Middle School students Samuel McLaren, left, and Yousif Alkhalef about a robotic vehicle. - Tom Leyde — Herald Correspondent
By Monterey Herald and Tom Leyde |
PUBLISHED: September 2, 2017 at 12:00 am | UPDATED: September 11, 2018 at 12:00 am
Monterey >> As robots become more a part of life, the world will need additional people to invent and build them.
Some of those future inventors and builders may be students now involved in the new Monterey Peninsula Unified School District Lego League.
Saturday, the Monterey High School Robotics program hosted its initial FIRST Lego Robotics League competition teams meeting. A group of Pacific Grove Middle School students turned out for the first step in robotics competition. Students from Walter Colton Middle School, Chartwell and Stevenson schools also are expected to take part in the league.
It's an educational partnership with Monterey High, Apple, Lego and the FIRST Robotics Competition. FIRST stands for, "For Inspiration & Recognition of Science and Technology."
Saturday, students were asked to chose group projects related to water transportation from a list of possibilities. They included desalination, collection of rainwater for drinking and transporting water.
Within a short time after picking their project, students were beginning to troubleshoot and build robotic devices from parts provided by Lego.
Students have eight weeks to design, build and test their robotics before competing in several competitions in Northern California in November. If they win in those events, they could advance to world-level competition outside California.
"Our job is to ask the right questions and move them (students) along," said Topher Mueller of Chartwell School. Mueller's been coaching robotics for several years and hopes to start a team at Chartwell.
Mentors such as Mueller, along with parents, members of the Monterey High robotics team and its coaches, were on hand to coach the middle school students.
Robin Coyne, automotive and robotics engineering instructor at Monterey High, is overseeing the new Lego League effort. He and others also coach the Monterey High robotics team. It's named Team 4255, the Robodores.
The Lego League is open to all students in the school district. The objective, Coyne said, is to create more interaction between Monterey High and middle schools and to introduce younger students to high school robotics competition.
"It's known as the hardest fun you've every had …," he said. "We wanted to provide this so it can be institutionalized. … Our goal," he said, "is to do something really worthwhile in the community. … We want to strengthen the Monterey Peninsula as a robotics hub."
The theme of water was chosen because it's a real problem in much of the world. "It's pretty cool and it's very real," Coyne said.
Nine of the Monterey High robotics class members were helping the Pacific Grove Middle School students get underway Saturday. The class had already built two gaming tables and sorted through Lego robotic kits for them.
"The reason it's working so well is because my students are so project oriented," Coyne said.
Monterey High's robotics program is not fully funded by the school district, so Coyne has sought out businesses and corporations as sponsors. Apple is a corporate sponsor, and Matt Lussier of Apple was in attendance Saturday.
Apple has become the sponsor for all Central Coast robotics team, Lussier said.
As the middle school students proceed in Lego League, they will be working to build robots that can navigate, find and perform a task. Each water project is given points on achieving those goals.
The student teams are allowed to share water as well, in a spirit of "coopertition."
Next Saturday, another group of middle school students will show up to begin their robotics projects. The sky is the limit for them. If they succeed with their projects in competition, they could possibly create a patentable idea and change the world.
Tom Leyde