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Students learn business aspects, too
By Mary Shapiro
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 10:53 PM CDT
Aaron Lynn-Vogel, a junior at Marquette High School, admits he's a fan of robots - so much so that he's planning to be president of the Rockwood Robotics team next year.
"I like working with the mechancial part of a robot, as well as designing them," said Aaron, 16, a Ballwin resident. "You start with nothing and create something that works and achieves a goal."
Robots designed and built by Aaron's Rockwood Robotics and other West County high school student teams battled to conquer the seventh annual St. Louis Regional of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition. High school students from 30 St. Louis area schools and 12 states participated in the competition recently at the Family Arena in St. Charles.They were among 45 teams - and their engineering and technical mentors - that demonstrated their skill for science, mathematics and technology.
"The best part of doing this was solving a problem," Aaron said. "You learn a lot beyond working with a machine. You get into the business aspect and get a real-world look at how business is run. And it's a lot of fun, hanging out with friends and working as a group. It's cool, the different solutions various teams can come up with to solve one problem."
Photo courtesy Paige Hereford/ This is a photo of the Rockwood Robotics team and their robot.
While West County schools won't be among three regional winners that advanced to the finals in Atlanta, they still performed well.
Among eight teams of students from the bi-state region finishing the two days of competition in the top 25 were:
- Team 1098, Rockwood Robotics, from Eureka, Lafayette, Marquette and Rockwood Summit high schools in the Rockwood School District. They worked with Pfizer Inc.
- Team 1178, DRT from DeSmet Jesuit High School in Creve Coeur and John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in Manchester. They worked with Boeing.
- Team 1182, the Patriots, from Parkway South High School in Manchester. They worked with Heat Transfer Systems, Pfizer, Rotary International, Festo Corp., EPIC Systems, Dobbs Tire and Auto Centers, Compear Design, Electronic Support Systems, Labview, and Graybar.
Another local team participating was Team 1329 of St. Louis Priory School and Visitation Academy.
Teams of students, working with professional mentors, are given the same kit of parts, a standard set of rules, a challenge to solve, and six weeks to design and create a robot to perform that challenge.
Once teams created the robot, their teams participated in regional competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot, collaboration and the determination of students. The students competed for honors and recognition that rewarded design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship, and partnerships between schools, businesses and communities.
Teams are rewarded not only for designing robots that achieve assigned tasks, but also for team spirit, gracious professionalism, maturity and the ability to overcome obstacles.
In this year's game, "FIRST Overdrive," students' robots were designed to race around a track knocking down 40-inch inflated trackballs and moving them around the track, passing them either over or under a 6-foot 6-inch overpass. Extra points were scored by robots positioning the trackballs back on the overpass before the end of the 2-minute 15-second match.
Paige Hereford was district coach for the Rockwood team, Rockwood Robotics. She's a talented and gifted teacher at Lafayette High School in Wildwood. About 40 students were on the team.
"Our robot didn't have an official name, but the other teams affectionately called us 'Speed Racer' when they cheered from the stands," Hereford said. "That became our nickname."
This was the team's seventh year.
"We built a little Ferrari race car this year, with an underglow that changed colors depending on the team's alliance in various competitions," Hereford said. "There was a red or a blue alliance on each match, pairing us randomly with two other teams. We did so well in St. Louis regionals - we made it to the quarter finals - that we chose to go to Oklahoma City regionals afterward to compete, where we finished in second place out of 39 teams.
"In Oklahoma City, the robot body was changed out to a DeLorean with a Back to the Future theme. We wanted to compete there too, because the kids weren't ready to pack up the robot."
This was Hereford's first year as sponsor.
"We always tell the kids to be GP - gracious professionals - while competing," she said. "If another team needed a part, or a robot broke, or they needed help with programming at the St. Louis regional, other teams would help. The competition enforces that this event is about growth and learning. It was cool to see high school students buy into the idea that, 'If I beat you at your best, that's been a good compettion.'"
Hereford called the competition "real-world problem solving at its finest."
For students interested in engineering, the competition helps them get hands-on experience, with engineers from the community volunteering to help as mentors.
"They never give kids ideas, but help them think through what they're doing and learn to troubleshoot," Hereford said. "Our robot this year was not what our mentor engineers would have recommended, but it was what the kids wanted to create. They wanted it to to look neat as well as function well."
Tim Morrison, with the Parkway South High team and a team leader in the science department (he teaches chemistry and physics), was a coach along with South teachers John Koski and John Jauss.
"This was our sixth," Morrison said. "This year, our robot was called Wompus - the name came out of John Jauss' college years - and the kids thought it was funny and stuck with it."
The Patriots finished in eighth place.
"I was impressed by the caliber of teams there," Morrison said. "This year's regional was as tough as any we'd been in. The greatest accomplishment of our team was a lot of growth through our four high school grade levels. We had nearly 70 kids on the team this year, a really good size squad. That's great for building in the future; many young kids are staying with the program."
Challenges this year were tough, he said.
"This year they had a totally new motion required, where you don't touch the robot but guide it with an infrared remote control (similar to a TV or stereo remote)," Morrison said. "They called that 'hybrid autonomous.' Before, you had to control the robot with a joy stick or not at all. During the automonomous mode, we got to use only remote control or do dead reckoning, where written code guides the robot."
The South team had several different strategies for infrared or dead reckoning, depending on their competition alliance.
"FIRST is about camaraderie and friendship," Morrison said. "It's neat to watch that develop among team members during the season and see it continue on years after, which is really powerful.
"Also, the kids get to work with pneumatics or drive systems or programming in an applied skill, such that they develop a product able to function at a high level. There's no way to set out to win the competition. But you can develop a finished product that runs well."
There's no right answer in the back of some book to tell the students what they did was good, he said.
"You only find out in competition," Morrison said. "You develop a really neat product and learn very practical, job oriented skills."
He said Gov. Matt Blunt was at the arena "and came over to drive our robot with our kids."
"We used the theme 'the MoDOT robot' using a 'no passing' sign on the robot, to lighten up the stress from construction on I-64, and with our team wearing orange T-shirts also with a yellow 'no passing' sign on the back," Morrison said. "Governor Blunt recognized that right away."
Team moderator Susan Murray, honors biology, anatomy and physiology science teacher at DeSmet, was in charge of the team from Kennedy and DeSmet, in coordination with moderators Mary Lynn and Vaughn Morill from Kennedy and Rob Behm from DeSmet.
"We had four mentors from Boeing and about 15 kids on the team," Murray said. "Our robot wasn't named, other than DRT, the team name. In the past, we were the DeSmet Robotics Team, and JFK joined us late enough that we couldn't include their name in the title.
"JFK had a robotics club and, through word of mouth, they heard we had a team, and students contacted us because they had an interest, so we decided to partner up."
This year's competition was challenging, Murray said.
"Every year the game is unique and poses different challenges," she said. "The biggest is only having six weeks to conceive, design and build a functional robot that can play the game and score the most points.
"They design the game to force the team to make choices. There's no one right way to design the robot. This was our sixth year, so, for instance, we're pretty good at doing a drive train."
The competition is guided by students.
"Moderators were there to guide them and unlock the door but, on our team, we have a hierarchy - usually seniors that are captains - and they are the ones who run meetings and guide and organize work schedules," Murray said.
"Kids split up into areas they are interested in to work on the robot, such as electrical or mechanical engineering or software or pneumatics. They work on functions and later integrate it all together. They get a lot out of it, with a hands-on, real-world application and the fun of the competition."
Paul Freiling, FIRST Robotics coordinator with the St. Louis Science Center, said the center is the primary educational partner for the program. He said the competition addresses a big problem today: the lack of those involved in science and technology.
This season, participating FIRST students are eligible to apply for more than $9.5 million in scholarships from leading universities, colleges and companies.
Freiling said the competition is not just about the design and building of robots but also lets students develop maturity, professionalism, teamwork and mentoring skills.
Many students on teams develop an affinity for their science and math courses, go on to study engineering, technology or science in college, and can even pursue employment opportunities with sponsoring companies, he said.
"The great thing about this competition is to inspire kids to get involved in engineering and other science and technology fields," Freiling said. "They get to work with engineering professionals, and it's totally hands-on."
You can contact Mary Shapiro at mshapiro@yourjournal.com.
Inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering. With the support of many of the world's most well-known companies, the non-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge for high-school students, the FIRST LEGO League for children 9 to 14 years old, and the Junior FIRST LEGO League for 6- to 9-year-olds. To learn more about FIRST, visit www.usfirst.org.
