By: Evan Mathias , Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Tilbury Times Reporter
Three robotics teams from St. John the Evangelist Catholic School in Woodslee competed at the FIRST Lego League Windsor Qualifying Tournament and came away with some hardware.
Two teams (The Water Resurrectors and Makin’ Waves) will be moving onto the provincial championships after finishing 1st and 2nd place for the overall Champions Award respectively, while the third team at the competition (The Good Lookin’ Hookinz) finished 1st in Innovation and 2nd place in Robot Performance.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is the largest body for robotics for K-12 ages internationally hosts qualifying events all over the world. FIRST releases new ‘mission models’ every year, which every participant around the world works under the same stipulations and within that model and theme. In this age division FLL, the competitors use Lego robotics parts to create robots and develop solutions to needs that they identify and research.
“The way it works is there are three components to the season and competition, the first one is the robot game. They have to build a robot with attachments and code it,” said David Kostanjevec, Grade 7/8 teacher at St. John the Evangelist. “Everyone around the world has the same ‘mission model’ trying to develop the same strategies to get the most points controlling their robot around a robot table.”
Innovation is another category for the competition with this year’s theme being ‘submerged’ each team was tasked with researching a water themed topic or problem while then innovating a solution to that problem, building a prototype and presenting their presentation to experts.
The three teams of Grade 7 and 8 students set out on the task.
The Water Resurrectors innovation was based around dead zones in Lake Erie and finding ways to use ultrasonic waves and oxygen to reduce the algae count to many dead zones in the Lake.
“This team won first overall dealing with dead zones and nutrification in Lake Erie. Their solution is a combination of two solutions, using different buoys with solar panels on them,” said Kostanjevec. “The Buoys would have compressors on them… 25 feet below the surface they would be infusing oxygen into the water. They did all the research about the success rates of infusing oxygen into lakes as well as using ultrasonic waves to kill off the algae blooms.”
According to Kostanjevec, a similar idea has been used in New Zealand.
Team Makin’ Waves built a wave tank to display their grander idea for a stopper to reduce erosion on Lake Erie, by submerging barriers to reduce the energy of the waves.
“Their idea was to take the barriers off-shore and submerge them into 10-feet of water where the maximum wave energy is. The idea is it would greatly reduce the energy of the waves so that by the time they hit the shore, it wouldn’t be as impactful,” said Kostanjevec. “According to the experts they consulted with, they said that over time it would expand the shoreline… The feedback was wonderful.”
Lastly, but certainly not least was the Good Lookin’ Hookinz, who’s idea and innovation was to create completely biodegradable fishing hooks.
“The material that they researched and planned to use is called PHA’s (Polyhydroxyalkanoates), it’s something that breaks down in three weeks once it gets wet,” said Kostanjevec. “It can actually be beneficial to fish, as once it breaks-down they can actually consume it.”
All of these ideas are incredibly detailed and complex according to Kostanjevec. For grade 7 and 8 students to get so innovative is impressive.
“Having a group of kids embrace something that was completely new to them and required a great amount of effort over three months is something I am very proud of. Having the opportunity to invent something new and go through the design cycle with that was a thrill to witness,” said Kostanjevec. “To take all this work to a tournament where they present to judges and be recognized was a real thrill for them. The best part is that they’re really humble about this recognition and are focused on redoubling their efforts for provincials.
The two teams moving on to the next level will compete at Durham College in the new year, continuing on with their same innovations and ideas, presenting to a new group of experts and competing from robotics teams all around the province.
“Now everything gets bigger, they have to elevate their games for this,” said Kostanjevec. “They’re developing their innovations to be even more in depth than what they were, they’re doing more experiments and of course all hands-on deck with the robots to make the best of it that they can.”
