Students from around the province spent the day programming robots to perform a series of tasks. (Danielle McCreadie)
Kids from across the province gathered in Rothesay Friday to test out their robotics skills.
The Rothesay Netherwood School played host to the province’s inaugural FIRST LEGO League robotics tournament, an international competition for middle schoolers.
18 teams tried their hand at various “missions” by programming robots to do certain tasks.
This is the first time New Brunswick is hosting the competition, which in the past was held at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.
“In the past we haven’t had the opportunity for New Brunswick students to compete here locally, and this is an opportunity for kids right across the province, from Bathurst to Edmunston right down to Saint John,” said event organizer Tammy Earle.
Earle, who is also a teacher at Rothesay-Netherwood, says the competition teaches kids about more than just robotics.
“They don’t give up, they persevere and I have students who will come back and try and try again. I think that’s really important skills and if they can realize and see that this is not a difficult thing, its something they actually can do, they’re going to grow and be those risk takers,” she said.
The competition is geared toward students in grade four to grade eight, which Earle thinks is a perfect age to instill a passion for S.T.E.M.
She says getting kids involved in science and technology at an early age teaches them to not be afraid to fail.
“learning is more than just learning inside the walls of the classroom”
“If… their robots flip or they bounce into something, they go ‘oh, how am I going to fix that?’ I really love that energy that they have. They do it with smiles on their faces,” she said.
I’m at the Rothesay-Netherwood school today where they’re hosting a robotics competition in partnership with LEGO. These two are from Barnhill Memorial in Saint John. They’re using their robot to “build cities” by moving blocks around the table. Neat stuff! 🤖 pic.twitter.com/yV76XOqwhy
— Danielle McCreadie (@danimccreadie) November 29, 2019
Mary-Ellen Wilcox, a science teacher at the school, says robotics and technology teaches students valuable life skills about not giving up.
“The biggest thing about science and technology is that you can fail and you can fail again and you can keep going at it and with robots, it teaches the kids that yeah, sure my mission didn’t work this time, but I’m going to fix it and I’m going to do it again. It’s that tenacity and it’s that robustness of learning,” she said.
In preparation for the competition, Earle and Wilcox attended a program at Carnegie-Mellon to become “LEGO Certified.”
“They have some of the most high-end robotics…they have the vehicles where the tires actually change shape, so it was absolutely fascinating. So we went down and we got trained, and it was really great to be a student,” said Earle.
Wilcox says a number of prizes were given out Friday , including Best Robot Design, Best Overall, and a Teamwork award.
“We’re looking for teams that have really sorted out how to work together because LEGO really feels that that’s a value, a life skill, to teach kids,” she said.
Six teams will be advancing to the next round of competition at Acadia University next February.
There they will have a chance for a spot at the Worlds competition in Detroit.
“I’m really proud of all the kids that showed up,” said Wilcox. “I just hope that the kids who are interested in this who maybe weren’t participating this year to ask their teachers and get themselves involved for next year.”
