by Jarren Harkema
Jarren Harkema is a home-schooled high school student who won his LiveCode license by entering a coding competition with RunRev. He is now sharing his passion for coding with his peers by mentoring The Sharks, a home-schooled FIRST LEGO League Team from Michigan.
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I’m standing by a 4×8 foot table made of 2x4s and plywood. On the table is a colorful mat with lines, patterns, and a home base. Strewn about the mat is a wide variety of LEGO models. Bowling pins are set up in one corner, stair steps leading up to a rocking platform sits in the middle. A LEGO stove sits to one side, burners showing on.
These models, along with ten others, are being scrutinized and discussed by 8 middle school students. “Well, we could put the blue quilts out on their mark first, then complete similarity, then send the dog back to base.” Says one team member. “Yea! Then we could grab the broken chair on the way back!” Says another. What are these kids discussing, and why am I watching? They are The Sharks, a homeschooled FIRST LEGO League Team from Michigan,and I am their mentor.
Front to back, left to right: Trey, Cole, Brennan, Jamin, Abby, Ryan, Ashly, Alex
FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” and was founded by Segway inventor Dean Kamen. FIRST LEGO League (aka FLL) is a science and technology competition for elementary and middle school students ranging from 9-14 years old. Last year alone there were over 18,000 teams from all over the world. During that year, The Sharks were honored to win the Michigan state competition, and asked to represent Michigan at the world championship in St. Louis, MO. Only 80 teams out of that 18,000 were invited.
FLL is comprised of 3 sections, the Robot Game, the Research Project, and Core Values, also known as teamwork. Each year there is a theme that encompasses the research project and robot game. Themes have ranged from how to conserve energy, to making transportation safer and easier, to keeping food safe from contamination. This year’s theme is all about making the lives of seniors better. Teams are challenged to build and program a robot out of LEGO to complete challenges on a table to earn points. Each challenge relates to senior living/challenges, such as physical therapy, or needing the use of a service dog. Teams have from the beginning of September, to the middle of November to build and program their robot to complete as many missions as possible.
So far, The Sharks have achieved 235 of a possible 723. This year The Sharks have also implemented LiveCode. We have created a scoring app which allows teams to quickly time, score, save, and share their robot score! Due to the speedy nature of LiveCode, we were able to get the app up and running within 3 days of the challenge announcement. We are using this as a fundraiser to pay for tournament fees and the like.
However, the robot game is only a third of challenge. Another part of the challenge involves a research project. The goal for this year is to find a problem seniors face today, and come up with an innovative solution. Each team must find a “senior partner” who will help them learn more about senior life, and problems they have. Once they narrow their problem down, teams must find an expert in the field who is currently working on the problem. The teams will then take this information, formulate their own innovative solution, and present it to those who it would benefit. Currently The Sharks have found that falling is a big problem, and are going to research preventative solutions.
The last third of the challenge is Core Values. On the FLL website, The FLL Core Values are described as “The cornerstones of the FLL program. They are among the fundamental elements that distinguish FLL from other programs of its kind. By embracing the Core Values, participants learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals, and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.” The teams learn that teamwork is what holds the other two parts of the challenge together.
The Sharks and Jarren in the black “innovate, don’t imitated” shirt.
FIRST LEGO League is a big commitment, but has huge rewards. Students will gain knowledge and experience in science, technology, communications, research, and presentation. FLL not only gets kids excited about science and technology, but provides the life skills essential for making the world a better place.
If you would like to learn more about The Sharks, or FIRST in general, visit www.paradiseteams.org, or www.firstlegoleague.org. To check out our app, go to http://itunes.com/apps/fllseniorsolutionsscorekeeper.
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