PHOTOS BY JENNIFER COLTON
Tornadoes and volcanos took over the cafeteria at McNary Heights Elementary on Thursday during the school’s Junior FIRST Lego League Exhibition.
As part of the after-school program, 60 McNary first-, second- and third-grade students have spent their afternoons planning, constructing and programing robotic disaster scenes. Each team built their display around a natural disaster, and each had to have a moving element run through a program a laptop.
The members of “Los Locos Legos” met that requirement with a spinning tornado, complete with a Lego mini-figure along for the ride. The team unanimously agreed that the prerequisite for motion was the hardest part.
“The tornado was hard because it’s spinning,” second grader James said. “We had to use the controls to make it go. That was hard.”
The team also designed their Lego board to look like the tornado had damaged skyscrapers and had trees leaning to the side as if being blown in the wind.
“The kids were really enthusiastic,” Los Locos mentor Abby Ames said. “The best part was being with the kids and hearing their ideas and imagination.”
Ames, a Umatilla High School senior, joined a dozen other UHS students in the mentor program. Most of the mentors in the FLL courses are members of the district’s higher level robotics teams. Ames, however, said she had little experience with Legos or robotics before joining the class.
“I definitely know a lot more about Legos now than when we started,” Ames said.
For other mentors, like Anay Mendoza, the after-school program was an opportunity to share a love of robotics with younger students.
“It’s great that even at this age, as first and second graders, they’re interested in FIRST and in robotics,” Mendoza said. “They’ve been so excited for today and showing off what they’ve made.”
Mendoza worked with the “Red Lego Sharks,” a team that chose to create a volcano. Their moving element was a vehicle transporting a terrified mini-figure to safety.
“It was really fun working with the kids and seeing what they could come up with and what they could do,” Mendoza said. “Ninety-five percent of this is them. I just guided them in the right direction.”
Junior FLL was one class offered in Umatilla’s STEM Academy. The grant-funded program provides free after-school classes for Umatilla School District students in kindergarten through high school with a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The next STEM Academy unit begins in January.
