The eighth-place finish was their lowest rank of the day. The team held mostly steady at third, jumping up to second for a short time, during the overall competition. A tough run in the play-offs dropped the team to their final rank of eighth place. “During the run the LEGO gods have to look favorably upon you,” explains teacher and coach Doug Finn. “One bad run can ruin you.” Despite the student’s disappointment in not having a trophy, Finn believes this was the best experience they’ve had as a team. “It was a great learning experience for them and they were excellent sports.”
This was their best overall finish to date, despite being the first year the students didn’t bring home a trophy of some kind. Past awards include Best Teamwork, Best T-Shirt design, and Best Innovation.
LEGO Robotics is a growing school activity which challenges students to design, build and program robots made of LEGOs. Maine Robotics, a nonprofit organization, spearheads the effort and sponsors the annual championship. Each championship has a theme, which in 2010 was “Body Forward.” Teams must research an actual theme-focused problem faced by scientists and engineers and present an original solution. Frenchboro chose frostbite and presented a skit demonstrating their conceptual solution: the “Lavasuit.” This theoretical iPod-powered bodysuit would be able to sense body warmth and send more heat to a cold limb when needed. After the presentation, the teams then compete to complete a mission devoted to the competition’s theme by manipulating their robots around obstacles on a mat entirely through their programming. Touching a robot during the mission results in disqualification. This year the robots had to pick up designated objects and place them on certain locations on the mat, as well as pick up other objects and return them to base. The Frenchboro robot, a sleek, two-wheeled machine with slender arms for grasping, was designed by the two fourth grade members.
At seven members, a number that includes every student in the eligible nine- to 14-year age range, Frenchboro was one of the larger teams in the competition. To ensure fairness, the team took turns running the three qualifying rounds in pairs and then voted to decide what pair would run the final round.
Such decision-making is common for this team. Finn explains, “I give them a task, but then I let them figure out the best way to complete it. There’s a lot of voting to make the decisions.” The students met after school for about an hour to an hour-and-a-half from two to four times a week, with practices ramping up closer to the competition.
Like many school teams, the Frenchboro students needed to find sponsorships to help offset the cost of the competition. While many schools turn to local businesses, Frenchboro, with its limited economic base, didn’t have the more common banks, plumbers and grocery stores common in mainland sponsorships. So they requested help from their biggest business: the lobstermen. Every boat captain on the island contributed to the cause, including some of the older students themselves, resulting in a team t-shirt with sixteen separate boats listed.
Although the major competition is done for the year, the team still has some plans ahead. There will be a regional “LEGO track meet” that the school may participate in. At the very least, Finn plans to run one himself on the island so younger students can try maneuvering the robots. Now in his third year of coaching, Finn himself is a big fan of the activity. “Our students tend to be very hands-on and this fits their learning style perfectly,” he says.