I started ref'ing the new season of LEGO robotics. The theme this year is
World Class, which has something to do with schools and learning, not the Olympics and sporting events like I originally thought. Once again the playing field is fairly crowded with 15 different missions packed onto one 4'x8' sheet of plywood. I think the biggest challenge for most teams was building a robot small enough to squeeze between all the obstacles on the field. These boys had one of the better robots. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but the robot is holding a blue ball (same color as the boys' shirts). This robot could maneuver down the playing field and throw the ball into a miniature soccer net and score a goal - not an easy thing to do for a human, let alone a robot. Unfortunately, most of the time their robot couldn't make its way back to base and the boys had to dislodge it from whatever it was stuck between. That's where my job kicks in, because I have to give them a touch penalty.
The teams also get very clever decorating their "pit" tables. This team built a model of a tiger whose eyes lit up when you stepped on the floor mat (notice the foot in the lower part of the picture). At first, I thought this tiger was one of the kids in costume, but it was just a mannequin. One thing I always notice when I work these events with middle school kids are the prominence of signs warning of peanut allergies. Every summer camp or robotics competition I do with kids always seems to have at least one kid (and usually many more) who has a peanut allergy. What I always wonder is, what are these kids going to snack on when they get older and have to fly some place on business???
