If their Lego robots don't save the world, these Wellington middle schoolers just might
WEST PALM BEACH — The future of innovation is in good hands. Even if they are coated in Cheez-It dust.
A group of middle schoolers sat outside of the Cox Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach on Saturday morning and mulled over the things they'd like to do one day.
Like building a rocket to that planet that rains diamonds, said 11-year-old Daanish Kazi, and his classmates, all from Polo Park Middle School in Wellington, nodded knowingly. It's Saturn, said 13-year-old George Honeycutt.
George wants to help end homelessness. Lucky Vishnuvardhan, 12, wants to colonize Mars.
"And the most important issue of all," said 12-year-old Ethan Aronson, raising his voice above the clamor of the others. "No more homework."
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Their parents herded them to the science center that morning to show off their robotics skills and encourage others to start their own team of innovators. Representatives from FIRST, an international robotics organization based in New Hampshire, ushered teachers and parents inside to hear how the FIRST Lego League challenges students to build robots and tackle real-world issues.
It's not a pipe dream, said Stacey Jones, the league's regional volunteer coordinator. Her skeleton earrings bounced as she described to an audience of about 30 people the impressive things children in FIRST Lego robotics leagues had done in past seasons.
One team, while brainstorming ways to recycle trash, decided the chip bags in their hands might make for good insulation. The 12- and 13-year-olds tested the idea, then patented it, and won first runner-up at the Global Innovation Awards.
"These kids are amazing," Jones said.
The seven from Polo Park sat in the back of the room with bouncing knees and a Tupperware full of robots as Jones broke down the league and competition fees. It costs about $100 per person for a team of 10, she said.
When it was the students' time to shine, they filed to the front of the room wearing matching T-shirts from last year's season. Some among them, like Lucky, represented Polo Park Middle's Cyber Stallions at the world championship in Houston in 2021.
They surrounded a table topped with Lego contraptions and began setting up their robots. Each one was preprogrammed to perform certain tasks, like picking up a Lego cylinder on one end of the board and placing it inside, on top of, or beneath one of the contraptions at the other end.
"This 90% of the time does not work," Lucky warned as her robot started to zoom. It didn't that time (but it was perfect yesterday, she said).
They can be finicky, said David Grad, the school's robotics coach. He reminded the parents huddled around the board that the students had spent only a week practicing with these bots.
They maneuvered them deftly still, celebrating the successes and brushing off the flubs. After, they snacked outside on bags of Cheez-Its — much like the ones their predecessors dreamed into insulation.
"I think it's kind of ironic how this year's theme is renewable energy," said 11-year-old Henry Honeycutt between bites. "Then on the board, there's an oil rig."
His teammates nodded. They're quick to poke fun at the grownups who've passed the burden of saving the world onto them. Most aren't even old enough to see a PG-13 movie yet.
'Girls wanting to be engineers shouldn't be a marvel'
Still, these seven believe in themselves as much as their parents do. The adults gave up, George said. The kids can't.
Lucky nodded. She saw the impacts of climate change firsthand when she and her family visited India last summer.
"Wherever you go, you would smell smoke, cough and run back inside," she said. "It's just that much of a problem."
They see it in West Palm Beach, too, in the plastic that clogs the gutters. It feels insurmountable sometimes, until a teammate mentions the methane eruptions produced by grazing cows. Then they laugh, their spirits high again.
Not all adults are to blame for the issues this generation is tasked with solving; Bill Nye the Science Guy is one of the good ones, George said. Nye introduced George and Henry to science when they were very young, and they've looked up to him ever since.
Lucky's still searching for someone like that.
"Maybe there's some person in the world that matches me, but I don't know who it is," she said.
FIRST Lego plastered the faces of other young girls across its promotional material inside the center Saturday, but Lucky and the six boys said it's been a challenge to recruit girls to their teams in the past.
The names of five on this year's list of Polo Park Middle teams were cause for celebration, then.
"Girls wanting to be engineers shouldn't be a marvel," Lucky said. "It shouldn't be a miracle, or something you don't see every day. It should be a normal thing."
They all have their sights set on becoming things like engineers, chemists and doctors, but none take themselves too seriously yet. Their free time is still filled with video games and fiction — anything to keep them from homework.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FIRST Lego League challenges students to build robots, tackle world issues
