MS Robotics FIRST LEGO Tournament
Source/Author: Dr. Anna Baralt, Director of Educational Technology
December 20, 2018
Middle School robotics Team 1448 'The Force' and Team 1449 'The R2D2s' competed in their first FIRST LEGO robotics tournament of the season on Saturday, December 15 at Dunedin High School. Teams arrived at 7:30am and spent the morning in judging rounds showing off their Project and Robot, and participating in a LEGO Core Values challenge to model teamwork and collaboration.
In the afternoon the teams ran their robots on the Into Orbit field trying to accomplish as many missions and score as many points as possible. The day ended with an awards ceremony at 4:30pm in which 'The Force' brought home a trophy for Innovative Project and 'The R2D2s' were awarded a trophy for Robot Design (Mechanical).
This year, students were challenged to identify a physical or social problem faced by humans during long space exploration. Team 1448 was intrigued about how food is grown in space and learned that astronauts are at risk of eating radiated food. Therefore, they set out to find a way astronauts can make foods grown in space safer for them to consume by reducing the amount of radiation in the nutrient solutions. Their solution: The Force Field.
In the afternoon the teams ran their robots on the Into Orbit field trying to accomplish as many missions and score as many points as possible. The day ended with an awards ceremony at 4:30pm in which 'The Force' brought home a trophy for Innovative Project and 'The R2D2s' were awarded a trophy for Robot Design (Mechanical).
This year, students were challenged to identify a physical or social problem faced by humans during long space exploration. Team 1448 was intrigued about how food is grown in space and learned that astronauts are at risk of eating radiated food. Therefore, they set out to find a way astronauts can make foods grown in space safer for them to consume by reducing the amount of radiation in the nutrient solutions. Their solution: The Force Field.
Earth’s magnetic field forms a natural barrier from space radiation. The team's invention prototype, The Force Field, builds upon this idea by using small magnets to create a magnetic field inside the growing pillows astronauts currently use to grow plants in space. This protects the plant from radiation and therefore keeps astronauts safe.
More photos here.
More photos here.
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