Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Lego board, emily
Lego program
lego laptop wyatt
lego cooper pivot
Emily Thompson watches the robot drop a “barrel of water” into a reservoir. Thompson was fine tuning the program to get the distance to the drop point just right.
While many people in Whitman County have seen the robots built by area high schoolers at the fair or other public gatherings, they may not be aware of a younger crowd that is using a popular toy as a prequel to a deeper understanding of robotics and computer programming.
First Lego League is an organization where school children explore real world engineering challenges by building Lego-based robots to complete tasks. It takes basic Lego building up a notch by getting youth to create computer programs to command Lego creations to fulfill tasks.
The LaCrosse First Lego League team consists of six students ages 9 to 14. This is the program's third year. Two of the students have participated all three years.
“I like building Legos,” said Wyatt Schwartz, seventh grade, one of the three-year veterans.
The robotics team gets to do a lot of Lego building. First is the game board, a table top with set challenges and obstacles. The team is given the bricks and directions for making items on the board; this year's tasks include a toilet to flush, thunderclouds holding rain and a fire truck.
Once the board is set up, the students get to delve into their own imaginations to create a robot to carry out program tasks. The board has 20 missions. At competitions, the team is judged by how many of those tasks it can fulfill and how well in a two minute time period.
“We were the only track vehicle in the game,” Wyatt noted of the first competition in December. He said that the tracks sacrifice a little for speed, but are better at getting over obstacles than wheels.
They use a handheld computer that connects to the robot to carry out the challenges. Each student takes one of the 20 missions, figures out what the robot needs to do to accomplish that task, then programs the computer to direct it. The computer device is plugged into a laptop computer and the students use a certain program to build the process for the robot to follow. They are able to program steering, motor movement, rotations and speed.
“It's very simple to learn,” said Wyatt.
The second part of the competition is the project and presentation where the team identifies an issue related to the theme―this year's being hydrodynamics―and comes up with a solution to it. The team took on irrigation with center pivots. As a way to better utilize water, the team's project is based on using satellite images to identify different soil types and moisture needs and change the speed of the pivot accordingly. For the presentation, the team built a model of a center pivot connected to one of the handheld computer devises which moves the pivot faster or slower as the pivot goes over different soil types signified by different colors on the table.
The third aspect of the competition is the core values wherein the team is judged on how they implement these values of inspiration, teamwork and gracious professionalism.
In its third year at LaCrosse, the program is already drawing in new recruits following in the footsteps of older siblings. Wyatt's younger brother Cooper, third grade, joined this year after watching his brother do it and going to the competitions in past years.
“It always looked like fun,” he said.
Emily Thompson, fifth grade, also joined after seeing her brother participate last year.
“I do like building with Legos,” she said. She also likes following directions to build the different aspects of the board.
The biggest thing she has learned and is stressed by their coach is to keep trying and never give up.
The LaCrosse team is coached by science teacher Matt Wysock.
“I think it's a good opportunity for them,” he said. He has been with the group all three years and last year added a computer programming class. He hopes to see the technology offerings at LaCrosse continue to grow. He acknowledged the kids have a lot of things competing for their time with sports and FFA, but by having the Lego League the school is able to provide a place for students that may not be geared toward either of those activities.
The team's first competition was Dec. 9 in Spokane. They competed against 35 other teams and received the Champions Award for best overall performance. They placed fifth in the robot games and received high marks for their project and presentation.
At the regional competition Jan. 13 at Eastern Washington University, the team received high marks for their core values and placed 16th in the robot games against 30 other teams from across Eastern Washington.
“I think they did well,” said Wysock. “Some of them are already looking forward to next year and I think I have several kids who are interested in joining next year.”
A section of code used to program the Lego robot.
Above: Wyatt Schwartz explains how he wrote the program used by the robot.
Right: Cooper Schwartz works on a fix to the center pivot model to keep the cord connected to the computer from snagging as coach Matt Wysock watches.
Jana Mathia is a reporter at the Whitman County Gazette.
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