Framingham Public Schools
 |
LEGO power on display By Andrew J. Manuse/Daily News staff MetroWest Daily News Sat Jan 12, 2008, 11:52 PM EST FRAMINGHAM--About 220 second- and third-graders brought their LEGOs to Framingham High School yesterday to model how electricity moves from its source to a schoolhouse object, such as a light bulb. The students, who prepared for the state's first Junior FIRST LEGO League Exposition with eight to 10 after school sessions, brought their models of windmills, solar cells, substations, oil pumps and nuclear and geothermal power plants for the league's Power Puzzle Challenge, a worldwide event. "The goal is to inspire kids to pursue their interests in science and technology and to think it's fun," said Amanda Fargiano, an event coordinator. "We hope to make it a part of their conversations." Two years ago, Fargiano brought her son and three of his friends to an Junior First LEGO League exposition in Rhode Island. Last year, she worked with McCarthy School Principal Joan Vodoklys to send six teams of 36 students back down for another expo. This year, with the help of a $4,000 donation from Comcast Corp. and other donations from Envisa, Bose Corp., Foster-Miller Inc. and Perini Corp., the two women were able to put together the expo here with a total of 38 teams, the largest number of teams participating in a FIRST LEGO program worldwide, according to Steven Cremer, regional director for the FIRST organization. In an effort to teach children where energy comes from for this year's event, students were asked to audit a room for all of the items that use electricity and pick an object to study what powers it, whether it's a battery, natural gas or oil, Fargiano said. Then, students had to model the flow of energy that powers the object using a LEGO Mindstorms kit and explain that model on a display board. Their models had to include one battery-powered motor, one simple machine and a base, she said. Varun Tekur, 8, a Hemenway School student on team Lighting Chargers, explained his team's oil pump model, which won an award for excellent movement and one of four excellence awards: "We pump the oil out of the ground and it goes to the power plant; they burn it at the power plant and make it into electricity," Tekur said. "Then it goes to transformers, then it goes to the power substation, which makes it less powerful because we don't want it to be too powerful, then it goes through a substitution substation to a house or school." Brophy School student Elijah Muller of the Mania Men team, which designed a wind turbine model, said, "the substation is important because if power went right to the light bulb it would send too much electricity and the light bulb would explode." Each student team had coaches that guided them, but the students came up with their model designs all on their own, according to Fargiano. Every team was given an award to recognize a superior aspect of their project. As part of the event, the McCarthy pilot First LEGO League Robotics team, made up of 28 fourth- and fifth-graders, simulated a First LEGO League competition. In a competition, students have to program a LEGO Mindstorms robot to perform certain tasks. This year, the students had to program the robot to install power generation equipment to coincide with the Power Puzzle theme. One student, Ethan McIlhenny, 10, said to program the robots the team had to measure out the course with a ruler, build the robot and its tools, then measure how many inches it takes for the robot's wheel to rotate once. Next, the team entered all the data into a Mindstorms software program and downloaded the program into the robot's computer so it could execute its mission. Ethan's mother Karen said the students did all of the work themselves. Coaches like she and her husband Paul are only there to "guide them along." The event was founded by The LEGO Group and the nonprofit For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST, Group. FIRST was founded by Segway inventor Dean Kamens to "create a world where young people dream of becoming scientists and technology heroes." The FIRST LEGO League program was launched in 1998 to advance that goal, and the Junior FIRST LEGO League was introduced in 2004. Past years' event themes have ranged from Mission to Mars and nanotechnology to this year's Power Puzzle. Next year's event is going to be focused on climate change. (Andrew J. Manuse can be reached at amanuse@cnc.com or 508-626-3964.) |
|
|
|
All rights reserved. |
|
