Statewide LEGO robot competition Saturday in Arlington Heights
For half a century, versatile interlocking plastic bricks known as LEGOs, with their bright primary colors, have fascinated and challenged generations of children.
Their seemingly infinite combinations have been used to create everything from a replica of St. Paul's Cathedral to Star Wars characters.
Now, through a program known as the FIRST LEGO League (FLL), they are providing the building blocks of scientific and technological knowledge for children throughout the world.
On Saturday, at Forest View Fieldhouse in Arlington Heights, more than 400 children 9-14 years old on 64 teams from across Illinois will take part in the league's 10th annual challenge, with this year's theme being "Climate Connections." They will program custom-built LEGO Mindstorms robots to perform a variety of missions related to climate change.
Winners will earn the right to go to the world competition in Atlanta.
Mount Prospect resident Eric Arndt brought the FLL program to Lincoln Middle School in Mount Prospect and also works for INSciTE Illinois, which is the Illinois partner for FLL and runs the tournaments in the state. He said the children are given LEGO kits. They then build and program the robots to solve various tasks.
"They're using a (programming) language that is part of the LEGO system," Arndt said.
During the competition, the robots will perform the tasks on tables in the field house during a two-and-a-half minute time limit. In keeping with the theme of climate change, the robots' tasks will include delivering a scientist who will study an iceberg.
The robots are built out of a combination of standard LEGO parts, enhanced with gears, drivetrains and chains, as well as touch and light sensors.
Arndt said his involvement with FLL began when his children were starting middle school.
"I'm an engineer," he said. "I work for Motorola, and Motorola is a very big sponsor of this program, so I learned about it through my company. And we formed a club and brought in teams that competed in this program."
Arndt said more than 60 percent of the teams are from the Chicago suburban area, although teams participate from as far south as Champaign.
He said that, in addition to the robot building and the table competition, the children also conduct a research project connected to the annual theme, which this year is climate change. They present their findings before a panel of judges. The presentation, he said, can be technical or entertaining.
In the latter category, 12-year-old Jenna Leane, a 6th grader at Lincoln Middle School, said her team, LEGO Thunder, is presenting a skit of a mock news report for the judges this year.
The children are scored based on a variety of factors, including the robots themselves and how the children worked as a team.
Arndt's daughter Taylor was on the team that won last year's state competition, Cobalt Blue. She said the children divided the labor according to the talents of each.
"A lot of us could program," she said. "Some of us were really good builders. We all did everything."
The work is hard, said the 13-year-old Lincoln Middle School student, but the results are exhilarating.
"During the practices, sometimes it kind of seems like this will go on forever, but once you get at the competitions, it's like, 'Wow, this is so much fun.'"
She said last year's activities revolved around alternative energy sources. "For our project, we remade the local car wash so that it was more energy efficient."
Jenna's father and coach, Joe Leane, said the children learn a great deal from their experience. "It might have been information that they were introduced to maybe some time in the past, but it really reinforces it and kind of connects it all together."
This year, for example, the team decided to research urban heat islands. He said they learned about the problem and various solutions, such as planting more trees, building roofs with colors that reflect energy or using more public transportation.
Joe Leane said he likes FLL since, as an engineer with a math and science background, he wants to encourage his daughters to explore careers related to math and science.
Jenna Leane said she learned about such issues as the impact of pollution on plants through her experience.
She added, "We talked to our principal about a couple ways that we can make our school more energy efficient."
<p class="factboxheadblack">If you go </p> <p class="News">The 10th annual FIRST LEGO League Illinois State Championship is Saturday. The winners will take their robots to the international competition April 16-18 in Atlanta.</p> <p class="News"><b>Location:</b> Forest View Fieldhouse, 2121 Goebbert Road, Arlington Heights</p> <p class="News"><b>Times:</b> Opening ceremony, 10:15 a.m.; tournament, 10:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; awards ceremony, 4:45 p.m.</p> <p class="News"><b>Ages:</b> FIRST LEGO League serves children 9-14 years old; there are also programs for high school students and 6-9-year-olds</p> <p class="News"><b>Competition:</b> 64 teams from 16 regional events with robots built and programmed over an eight-week period </p> <p class="News"><b>Admission:</b> Free</p> <p class="breakhead">Background</p> <p class="News"><b>Meaning:</b> FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology </p> <p class="News"><b>Founder:</b> Segway inventor Dean Kamen started the program in 1989 to foster an appreciation of science and technology in young people </p> <p class="News"><b>Web sites:</b> <a href="http://www.usfirst.org" target="new">usfirst.org</a>, <a href="http://www.insciteillinois.org" target="new">insciteillinois.org</a></p>