Learning outside the classroom by Girl Scouts of Nassau County's First Lego Teams, Merrick Masters :) and Robotic Cookie Monsters

Merrick students competing in Lego ‘Senior Solutions’ competition visit Farmingdale supplier of products for independent living    

MaxiAids Products for Independent Living (www.MaxiAids.com), a Farmingdale based provider of items that help seniors, the visually and hearing impaired, and those with special needs, recently hosted two groups of Merrick girls whose teams are representing the Girl Scouts in a competition to develop a product idea to help seniors.   The first team of six girls – all 8th-grade students at Merrick Avenue Middle School – goes by the name ‘Merrick Masters :)’. The second team consists of seven 5th and 6th graders from Old Mill and Fayette Elementary Schools who call themselves the ‘Robotic Cookie Monsters.’   Girl Scouts of Nassau County sponsors both teams for the FIRST LEGO League competition run by the School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. for Nassau/Suffolk counties. The purpose of the Girl Scouts’ involvement in FLL is that they have initiatives to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics with girls at an early age hoping to inspire future scientists, engineers, or other technical studies/professions.  

MaxiAids invited each of the teams to its showroom to see a sampling of the more than 8,000 products they stock that make people’s lives easier. During the visits, Director of Sales Barry Greenblatt gave lively presentations of a variety of products, at one point joking, “We are counting on you to come up with the next eight thousand items!”   Among the items the girls saw were a money identifier which reads and announces the amounts of paper currency, a big button TV remote, and an accessible soccer ball with bells inside it that blind players can follow audibly.   Two products that seemed to bring the greatest reaction were a personal listening system that allows the hard of hearing to amplify the sounds around them, and a color identifier that recognizes and announces colors – a helpful tool for blind and color blind people.  

The teams also presented their Senior Solutions projects. The Merrick Masters’ “Danger Detector” is a smartphone app focused on fall prevention. It would utilize photos taken of each room in a home as a basis to identify potential hazards, calling attention to objects that may present a danger to people with limited vision.   The Robotic Cookie Monsters’ “RoboEyes” would, through the surgical implantation of cameras with transmitters next to the user’s eyes and a receiver in the brain’s visual cortex, enable the blind and visually impaired to view the world around them.

 “It was great to meet the girls and show them products that are currently available,” noted Barry Reiter, MaxiAids Director of Business Development, “and it’s inspiring to see both teams’ dedication and attention to detail in developing their own product ideas.”  

The culmination of both teams hard work was that the Robotic Cookie Monsters achieved the third highest robot performance score, while the Merrick Masters :) received a "Strategy and Innovation" Award at the SBPLI's  First Lego League Tournament at Longwood High School on Sunday, March 3, 2013.