It was a busy year for robotics teams in the Adolescent Program. In a classroom of 15 students, they fielded both FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams, and both teams won judged awards at the state championships. It was also a different year than most. The demands of social distancing during the pandemic made both working on the robots and competing in large groups tricky. One team spent the winter meeting over zoom, while the other one had to come up with innovative ways to stay spread out. “Coding Java in person during a pandemic requires a projector” reads team Infinity Factor’s Facebook post from February 22nd. The state championships themselves were held remotely, which added other complications. “The software they use for meetings actually crashed during the competition” noted FTC team parent Ruth Jedlinsky, “we have no photos from the competition.”
FLL
FIRST Lego League Challenge, for ages 9-14, allows participants to engage in research, problem-solving, coding and engineering – building and programming a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of a robot game. As part of Challenge, teams also participate in a research project to identify and solve a relevant real-world problem.
Zoe, Olivia, Ryan, and Pranai
This year’s Challenge, RePlay, was to design a solution to improve physical activity. The LEGO Mind Blocks, Hollis Montessori’s FLL team, chose to design an exergame for older adults using a depth sensing webcam and skeletal tracking. “The real fun was skeletal tracking dance parties that always seemed to break out” says team coach Joshua Smith. “Our robot had to be able to use a pull up bar and a rowing machine,” say team members Olivia Ostermiller and Ryan Smith. “It also had to play hopscotch. We flattened a bench to create a hopscotch board.”
The LEGO Mind Blocks with their award
At this year’s competitions, the team won the Robot Design Award and 2nd place robot performance. At the New Hampshire state competition, the team once again showed their marquee strength - reliability and consistency. The team scored over 400 points in all of their matches and averaged 100 points more per match than their nearest competitor. The highlight of the competition was their 'perfect run' where they scored all possible points they attempted - an exceptionally rare feat!
“In order to stay awake for Saturday morning Zoom meetings” says Joshua Smith, “we broke up the meetings by playing Scattergories and virtual jigsaw puzzles. In person, the team had fun and stayed safe by playing socially distant Charades, as well as party games Just One and Medium”
FTC
First Technology Challenge, for students in grades 7-12, challenges teams to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format. This year’s Challenge, Ultimate Goal, was designed to “revolutionize the way we play and move,” and replicate the collaborative effort required to win at team sports.
Pranai, Ben, Helen, and William with their Connect Award
The Hollis Montessori team, 8888 Infinity Factor, won the Connect Award at the state championships, an award given to the Team that “most connects with their local science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) community. A true FIRST team is more than a sum of its parts and recognizes that engaging their local STEM community plays an essential part in their success. The Team that wins the Connect Award actively seeks and recruits engineers and explores the opportunities available in the world of engineering, science and technology."
The team in their practice arena, upstairs at Neil Stone’s Karate Academy
The team reached out to Neil Stone's Karate Academy for space to work and to run the robot since there wasn't enough space at school due to social distancing. They also reached out to CodeGym for tutoring accounts to learn Java. When a robot part turned out to be too big to print on the 3D printers the team had access to, team member Pranai Rao reached out to former Hollis Montessori board member John Longan at design firm Farm. John Caswell at Farm did the actual printing. The team also applied for and received a grant from BAE Systems that helped pay for the robot’s components.
Team Infinity Factor’s Robot
Team members joked that it seemed like the robot liked throwing rings at member Ben Jedlinsky’s face. “I would stick my head in the ring and the robot would always hit the target when it bounced off my face.” Other than joking around, the team worked hard to learn Java and get the robot working. “We've been working on the jump from coding in Blocks to coding in Java directly, using Android Studio,” reads the team’s Facebook post from December 21st, “Today we made the leap successfully!”
Hollis Montessori is so proud of both teams, including Olivia and Zoe Ostermiller, Ryan Smith, and Pranai Rao on the FLL team, and Ben Jedlinsky, William Van Uitert, Helen Saunders, and Pranai Rao on the FTC team. We’re also so grateful to Joshua and Lisa Smith, Dave Jedlinsky, and Erik Saunders for mentoring the teams.