Placed on each desk of the classroom are different boxes of Lego pieces and laptops. Some students are at work on their computers while others toil with the multicolor bricks of plastic.
One fifth grader taps a button on his laptop, causing a Lego creation to wheel around the floor.
These students aren’t just playing with Lego bricks. They’re engineering for their new Lego robotics program at Kenilworth Elementary School.
Anthony Pietrangeli, principal of the school, said the students are building Lego robots for their competitive debut in the First Lego League, a robotics competition spanning the globe.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Pietrangeli said. “They’re learning not only the engineering of building these robots … but the collaboration of each other to work together, problem solve and develop the code of the robot they built.”
The afterschool program, specifically for students ranging from fifth to eighth grade, is part of an effort by the school to implement more “S.T.E.A.M.” activities, standing for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
Pietrangeli said the Lego robotics club originated from a grant given to Kenilworth Elementary School by the Phoenix Coding Academy. From there, the school was able to purchase the Lego kits and laptops necessary to compete in qualifying tournaments. The students then use the bundled software, Lego Mindstorms, to program their robot.
“The instructions are great because you have to think,” Pietrangeli said. “There’s absolutely not one single word written on the instructions to build something.”
The students of Kenilworth Elementary are constructing a model known as the “Lego EV3,” a motor equipped robot of Lego bricks encoded with sensor technology. The team has built a table complete with other Lego models that its robot can interact with, demonstrating the capabilities of its programming for the tournament judges.
Rick Phillips, coordinator of the seventh and eighth grade robotics team, said the tournament challenges this year are themed as Animal Allies. The students have to propose a solution to an animal rescue-based issue.
“This club is run by the students,” Phillips said. “All the solutions and the project is student generated.”
Jacob Aceves, team leader of the seventh and eighth grade robotics team at Kenilworth, said the tournament this year is divided into three phases: a robotics demonstration, a solution to an animal rescue issue and a presentation of “core values” the team used to work together.
“Recently, there’s been a lot of news reports of dogs being trapped in cars,” Aceves said. “What we’re doing is finding a solution to that so that it is no longer a problem.”
Kenilworth Elementary School is currently slated to compete at Metro Tech High School and Bioscience High School on Nov. 19 and Dec. 3, respectively.
Contact the reporter at kgafsi@asu.edu.
