Lego robot fever hits again

Robots continue to invade the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

In a free NASA program given last week at Kaiser Elementary School, sixth-graders learned the ins and outs of several Lego robots modeled on real-life units, like the Mars Rover.

Longtime Kaiser teacher and science buff Linda Galloway cashed in one of her substitute teacher days to spend the entire day with the school’s sixth-graders and NASA traveling educator Taunya Sweet.

Sweet treks around the country in her 22-foot Airstream van, along with the eight little robots. She pulled them out Thursday for the children.

Following a short discussion about NASA’s various efforts and programs, Sweet re-engaged the students with a no-brainer of a question.

“So do you want to play with some Legos?” she asked.

“Yeeeeeeessssssssss!” the students cried.

The children were divided into eight groups and assigned a robot. Each of the eight Lego Mindstorm robots has several sensors on it, which can include heat, touch, motion and light varieties. Kids operated them using remote-controlled programs.

Students at Newport Coast Elementary School recently used the same types of robots to win a countywide robot competition.

“Each robot has a job that it would do on the moon,” Sweet said. “Has anyone ever used an iPod before?” Many of the students raised their hands. “If you can use an iPod, you can run one of these robots.”

The Settlement Pioneer model was based on a robot designed to help astronauts colonize the moon, and came with ultrasonic and light sensors. It was able to discern and knock over red Lego bricks; while in motion, the robot stopped when it sensed the boundaries of the circle it was set in.

Other robots included the Payload Deployer and the Crater Explorer.

“I didn’t know that we could actually talk to robots, and that they could act just like people,” said Angie Grigsby, 12.

The kids recorded their hypotheses and observations about the robots’ tasks and abilities as they worked.

They caught on quickly; some discovered that they could put two of the contraptions near each other, and a crowd formed around an impromptu game of robot wars.

“I’m glad you enjoyed this. Just please don’t let my robots attack each other anymore,” Sweet said.