The Kincardine FIRST Lego League Team 4137, the Clean Up Crew, is at the University of Waterloo this weekend, talking trash and hoping to bring back some awards.
The team, which includes coach Brent Williams, and team members, William Middelkamp, Spencer Adams, Nathan Williams, Carter Frook and Layne Rothmaier, won the Champion's Award at the Kincardine regional, Nov. 28, to qualify for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) provincial championships in Waterloo.
Carter and Layne spoke to Kincardine council Wednesday night (Jan. 27) about the FIRST Lego League (FLL), this year's challenge, the robot the team built, and the proposal it put forward to improve the curbside recycling program.
The theme this year was "Trash Trek," and the team must compete in three different tasks: the robot game, core values, and a project presentation.
Team 4137's project centred on a way to keep plastic bottles in the Blue Box, rather than having them blow all over the road. The group created a bottle slicer to turn those bottles into small pieces of plastic that would stay in the box, and an easily-removed lid for the box.
The team also put together a commercial which was posted on You Tube, and sent letters to prime minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne, local MPPs, and local governments. Responses were received from Wynne and Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker.
A commercial put together by FIRST Lego League Team 4137, the Clean Up Crew, of Kincardine
Layne told council that the kits are just in the research and development stage, and not for sale. But if they were, they might cost about $10 each.
Mayor Anne Eadie thanked the team for its fascinating and professional presentation. "Good work, and all the best at the provincials," she said.
Meanwhile, Kincardine's third annual FIRST Lego League qualifying regional was another great success, drawing eight teams to compete at Kincardine District Secondary School, Saturday, Nov. 28.
Six teams were from Kincardine (three from Huron Heights Public School, and three from St. Anthony's School), while two were from Collingwood.
This year's theme was entitled "Trash Trek," challenging the teams to explore the fascinating world of trash. From collection, to sorting, to smart production and reuse, there is more to your trash than meets the eye.
Besides doing the research and building a robot for the challenge, each team had to perform a Lego challenge that embraced the Core Values which are:
We are a team
We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors
We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together
We honour the spirit of friendly competition
What we discover is more important than what we win
We share our experiences with others
We display gracious professionalism® and coopertition® in everything we do
We have fun
Awards were presented at the end of the competition:
Robot Design and Performance for a team with good mechanical design programming and sound innovation and strategy and scoring the most points in the challenge – Trash Troopers of Collingwood
Project award for quality research, innovative solutions, and in-depth understanding of the various scientific disciplines and issues involved with the project – Elemental Inkbots of Kincardine
Core Values award for best demonstrating extraordinary enthusiasm, spirit, inspiration, exceptional partnership and the utmost respect to teammates and support and encouragement for other teams - Chipettes of Kincardine
Champion's Award for a team that embodies the FLL experience by fully embracing the core values while achieving excellence and innovation in both the robot game and the project – Clean Up Crew of Kincardine
Volunteer award – Brent Williams
Appreciation to the Kinetic Knights Robotics Team 781, which ran the event.
January 30, 2016
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