Photo By Michael Glasch | USACE-Omaha employee Tracie Louis poses with the winning team of the FIRST Lego League...... read more read more
Building Strong!
The motto of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers not only refers to its construction projects, but also helping mold the engineers of the future through Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education.
Senior leaders across USACE encourage employees to promote STEM activities at all levels. So when Tracie Louis, a contracting specialist with the Omaha District, had the opportunity to volunteer as a judge for the local FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League Robot Competition Qualifier for middle school students Feb. 2, she embraced the opportunity.
“For me it was really incredible to see these young minds and to see them excited about science and engineering,” Louis said. “I really enjoyed seeing their teamwork because they stepped up if there was a team member that was quiet or a little shy or struggling; they stepped in and encouraged each other.”
Thirty-two teams (12 of which qualified for the state finals) competed in three areas: robotics, a research project and core values. In the robotics portion, the students use robots they’ve built and programmed to complete certain tasks within a specific timeframe.
“The teams each have a robot built out of Legos that they programmed to run autonomously on a game mat. There are up to 25 missions that they can try to complete,” explained Garrett Sims, tournament director. “There are way too many missions to complete because they only get two-and-a-half minutes, so they have to choose which missions they want to try and complete. They’re not allowed to touch the robot once they run the program, so it’s all about programming it to run on its own, so no remote controls or anything like that.”
The research project requires the teams to present a solution to a problem based on this year’s theme of outer space. Each team had to identify a physical or social problem faced by humans during long duration space exploration within our solar system and propose a solution.
“We were looking for design, how durable it was, what their mission strategy was, how innovative they were, and did they have a good objective of what they were trying to do,” Louis said.
While building a successful project and robot were the ultimate goals of the competition, Louis stressed that helping the students learn from failures was just as important.
“At that point it’s important to give them the encouragement to not quit, that it didn’t matter if the robot didn’t work right this second. What did you do to get here? What was the program you did? What was the thought pattern behind it?,” she explained. “Be excited about it, don’t be afraid to messup, or things don’t work right, it doesn’t matter, just keep trying.”
Core values made up the final portion of the judging.
“It’s all about their teamwork and how they work together,” Sims said. “When they go into that room to be evaluated, they’re given a task to do and the judges in that room watch as they work as a team. Is each member contributing, is someone bossing everyone around, are they taking time to listen to each other? That whole collaborative idea is very big in the FIRST Lego League.”
Competitions like FFL are designed to get children excited early on about STEM. The goal is to open up the future possibilities available while they are still making up their mind about what they want to do when they grow up.
“They make the competition a fun atmosphere. You can do sports, but you can also succeed doing things like this. It’s still a stereotype we’re fighting,” he said. “The more you reach them when they are young, the more it helps them in the long run.”
Louis said that judging the competition was a rewarding experience for her, and encourages other USACE employees to volunteer to do the same.
“You can come in not knowing anything about this. I’m a contracting person, I’m not a science person. There is a rule book to show you what to grade against and what not to grade against,” she said. “You get to see these wonderful kids and their excitement. You see it in their eyes. They’re hungering for your advice and any guidance you can give them.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is committed to recruiting the highest quality leaders for its workforce and the organization regularly attracts the best STEM talent through strategic national recruitment events and university outreach programs. With the help of volunteers like Louis, the Corps is able to inspire even younger kids to consider a career in a STEM field.
(Editor's note: Watch the robots in action at https://go.usa.gov/xdpHd)
| Date Taken: | 02.02.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 02.21.2019 16:39 |
| Story ID: | 311497 |
| Location: | BELLEVUE, NEBRASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 108 |
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This work, USACE Omaha volunteer helps promote STEM through robotic competition, by Michael Glasch, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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