Armatage Robotics Teams Advance To State

At not one, but two teams of fourth- and fifth-grade intellectual athletes are preparing to compete against students from around the state in a robotic competition. The Lego Spaghetti-Os and the Bruised Bananas will face off against other winners of regional tournaments in early January.

Don’t be fooled by the cute names, though: these kids’ brains are doing some heavy lifting.

The FIRST Lego League, created by Segway inventor Dean Kamen, pits teams of students in grades four through eight against each other in a sequence of timed challenges using a LEGO robot the teams design and build themselves. The competition has become something of a varsity sport at Armatage, which has sent teams to the state competition several times. Younger siblings often follow in their older brothers’ and sisters’ footsteps and join the teams.

The robots they wield are quite the creations. Built around “NXT Bricks”—programmable computers encased in a LEGO-compatible shell—the devices can sense touch, sound, light, and even interact with their environment through pre-programmed responses to what their sensors experience. Students control the creatures through computer programs they write themselves.

“It’s a lot more simple than it sounds,” Spaghetti-Os member Oskar said with great nonchalance. “There are some videos on the NXT website that tell you how to use it. Once you learn the basics you can do a lot.”

That might explain the smashing success of both teams. At least when being interviewed by a reporter, one team partially resembled a collection of gas molecules, mentally, physically, and conversationally bouncing around the room.

“That’s part of my job,” joked volunteer coach David Kern. “I’m not allowed to tell them to do anything contest-related, only to guide them—and that’s a full-time job by itself!”

All that enthusiasm goes a long way, the student members of the Bruised Bananas said, and kept them moving in the weeks leading up to the regional competition, where they spent several hours a day, after school, working on their project.

For a robotics competition, the contest surprisingly de-emphasizes the actual robot. Instead it sounds a lot closer to—wait for it—the lives of real scientists. Every competition is organized around a theme. While their robots had to deal with things like picking up “bugs,” the Armatage students had to research a food contamination problem, concoct a technical solution for the problem based on that knowledge, and share their findings with professional researchers and members of their community.

But realistic or not, is it part of a grand pipeline to create the next generation of great American inventors? When interviewed by Patch, many members of the Bananas said they weren’t looking to go into robotics or science. Still the experience hasn’t soured at least one student on a future career in science.

“I am going to be an astrobiologist,” Braden proudly proclaimed.

Editor's Note: Thanks to reader and Armatage parent Sarah Linnes-Robinson, who tipped us off to these teams' success. Thanks also to reader Charles Spolyar, who pointed out in an email that also had four LEGO robotics teams this year including one, "Man vs. Brick," that's also going to state. Congratulations to the Burroughs students and their mentors from 's !