County schools head to State LEGO Competition
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Teams of elementary and middle school students from Fort Fairfield, Fort Kent, Frenchville and Houlton are headed to Augusta next month to test out their creative and technical skills at the Maine State LEGO League Competition.
Those schools earned top marks at a regional competition held by Maine Robotics in Presque Isle, where teams from nine schools participated in the LEGO Robotics and “animal allies” research project challenge.
The overall competition includes the robotics, where students build and program LEGO robots for a table-top mission course, and community science projects on the theme of improving human relations with animals.
Fort Fairfield’s “The Pride” team and Frenchville’s “Never Give Up” earned first and second place respectively and were invited to compete in the state finals in Augusta on December 10, along with the Fort Kent and Houlton teams.
“They’re excited to go,” said Lisa Bernier, principal of Dr. Levesque Elementary in Frenchville.
Along with well-run LEGO robots that demonstrated technical skills, the teams from Fort Fairfield and Frenchville had unique research projects that they were passionate about, Bickford said. The winning Fort Fairfield team examined “the cruelty in factory farming,” with a Change.org petition calling for using more humane ways to raise dairy, eggs and meat.
The Frenchville team explored the problem of honeybee colony collapse disorder, visiting local beekeeper Lucien Daigle, discovering the research about pesticide impacts and creating a website with a video presentation and links to more resources.
“One in every three bites of food is pollinated by a bee,” said fifth-grader Kameron Cyr, who was handing out business cards with the project’s website at the event, held at University of Maine Presque Isle.
Dr. Levesque Elementary has been participating in Maine Robotics for four years and was one of the first in Aroostook County, said Bernier. Today, there are also teams from schools in Dyer Brook, Fort Fairfield, Fort Kent, Houlton and New Sweden, and one is starting up in Caribou next year.
“It teaches kids how you have to follow through and work as a team,” but also lets them figure out the projects, with “kids being kids,” Bernier said. The LEGOs and research projects appeal to the students’ creativity, while the robotics requires applied math.
“The kids will run the robot and say, ‘You’ve got to go another minus-five degrees on that one and another few rotations on that one.’ They go code what they think they need, and then go run the robot. It’s amazing. I don’t understand anything about the programming.”
Maine Robotics is now in its 12th year running clubs, competitions and summer camps, including camps set to be held in Fort Kent and Houlton next summer. The programs are aimed at offering students ways to get interested in math and science and ultimately careers in science, technology, engineering and math fields, said Tom Bickford, director of the Maine Robotics nonprofit.
“They’re learning a lot of age-appropriate skills,” in a quasi-competitive setting where it’s okay to experiment, said Bickford, a biomedical engineer who has also taught middle school math and science.
“For a long time, we have just assumed that going to your school and taking your math and science classes is going to get you where you need to be, but it doesn’t really work that way,” Bickford said. “You need to have enrichment programs and after-school programs.”
