Mom’s dedication helps budding whiz kids
Published 1:56 pm Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Nancy Morris is a brave woman.
There aren’t many moms who would willingly volunteer to have her house invaded by eight hungry and hyperactive young boys between the ages of 9 and 11 once a week.
But Morris is that type of mom – she doesn’t mind. It’s all in the name in science and learning.
The online business lecturer, who lives in the Cimarron neighborhood of Sammamish, this year agreed to coach the team of local elementary school students in the First Junior Lego League.
The competition is designed to introduce younger students to engineering challenges and the real life experience of building robots.
Using robot kits and software supplied by Lego, the team members program the robot to undertake a sequence of movements around a landscape filled with task and obstacles.
Much like the more intensive Robotics clubs popular with older students, such as the award winning Issaquah High School team, the Junior Lego League hopes to encourage the scientifically inclined to explore their passion in a hand-on environment.
For Morris, involvement in the the league was all about providing her son, Jason, with a creative and positive outlet.
“There are a lot of kids who aren’t necessarily into sports, or music, or things like that, but still have a lot of energy and are keen to be involved,” she said. “The good thing about this is that its about science and computers and stuff, which is what the boys are interested in, but it also has that competitive element.
Joining Jason on “The Lego Crew” are Andrew Leinweber and Erik Moulton, from Samantha Smith Elementary School, and Devin Patel, Graham Hanson, Justin Tsang, Nicholas Fish and Prateek Bhaumik, from Rachel Carson Elementary.
Last week The Reporter visited Morris’s home to watch the crew’s latest attempt to guide the robot around the complicated course. About twice the size of a Rubiks cube, on two wheels, the robot would follow the right course for a few inches, before colliding with a Lego pylon, or running over a Lego guide post. Then it was back to drawing board, or laptop computer, for some more programming.
The boys hope to have their machine mastered by Dec. 12, when they will take part in the First Lego League State Championships in Bellevue.
But there is more to the league that just robotics. Part of the challenge is also to understand what such applications could do in real life, in communities like theirs.
At last week’s City of Sammamish Council meeting the group presented the findings of their research project, explaining to the councilors the functioning of the Urban Light Transit (ULT) system.
The ULT, currently being installed at Heathrow Airport in London, and being considered for other dense metropolitan sites, uses battery powered four-person pods running on elevated tracks, similar to a mono rail.
The young students offered their own vision of Sammamish’s future, proposing that such a network could be used to transport people from the Sammamish Park and Ride to NE8th Street.
The First Junior Lego League was developed by Dean Kamen, the man who invented the zero emissions personal transporter, the Segway Scooter. Morris believes the league teaches valuable lessons for young students, not only about science but also about the power of teamwork, and the practical applications for what, at the moment, probably feels a lot like play.
“I didn’t know anything about programming when I started,” she said, adding that, while a working knowledge of computers was helpful it wasn’t necessary to hosting a team.
Want to know more? Interested in starting a team? Contact Nancy Morris at nancyamorris1@comcast.net
