Owyn's Lego Competition

The Robotic Regals competed at the Dubuque First Lego League Expo.  Their team has been preparing for the competition for 4 months.  This year's theme was "Trash Trek".  Teams had to select some piece of trash and improve on the way in which it is disposed of.  The Robotic Regals visited the Iowa City Landfill early in the season and talked to the Iowa City Recycling Coordinator Jen Jordan.  They discovered that unused and expired medications sometimes end up in the landfill or flushed down the toilet.  This was a serious environmental problem that the team decided to tackle. 

Soon after they contacted scientist Dana Kolpin with the US Geological Survey.  He gave them a presentation about the impacts of drugs in the environment.  They found out that water treatment plants were not equipped to deal with many of the drugs that end up in the water supply and that this was a health risk to both humans and animals.  For instance it can slow down the reaction time of fish and make it more difficult for them to survive.

 

They took their research and decided the solution was to have more convenient drop off for expired medications.  Currently most drop off programs are done once or twice a year.  They devised a system where all pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. would have drop off tube system where the drugs would go underground into a secure container that would be picked up regularly and handled in an environmentally safe manner.

The competition consists of three parts that are scored.  One is their project presentation which was described above.  The second is a robot challenge where they have to build and program a lego robot to perform specific tasks on a challenge course.  Lastly they are judged on the Lego Core Values.

The competition was fun to watch.   There were 32 teams (up to 10 kids on a team) and a lot of activity going on. The Robotic Regals did a great job in all three areas and were one of 8 teams who were invited to the State Lego League Competition in Ames, Iowa on January 16th.  They were all very excited.

YouTube Videos of the Robotic Regals