Students in grades 6 to 8 at Westminster Woods Public School are the first in Guelph to join the First Lego League, which uses building blocks, robotics and programming to teach science, technology, engineering and math.
Staff at Upper Grand District School Board learned about First Lego League about a year ago and began putting together a proposal to bring the competitive program to local schools.
Westminster Woods Public School is the first in Guelph to offer the elective program, which used Lego MindStorms robotics kits to teach the students the foundation of science, technology, engineering and Math (STEM).
The First Lego League concept includes much more than simply building with Lego blocks in that it teaches children to research, use critical thinking and to present their projects during competitions with other schools.
The theme for this season of First Lego League is the human water system — how water gets from the natural environment to our homes, businesses and industries and how that water then returns to the natural environment.
Scott, a Grade 8 student at Westminster Woods, said he was interested in working with Lego to solve problems, but his interest became heightened when he learned this year’s theme is tackling the issue of water.
Since Grade 2, Scott has been involved with Me to We, a social enterprise which challenges people to make a difference around the world with simple consumer choices, shifting ‘me’ thinking to acting for the collective ‘we’.
Through Me to We — which is not a component of the First Lego League — Scott said he has become aware of how privileged he is to be living in country with access to fresh, clean drinking water.
“Being able to work on something like this and at least trying to do something to help, it really connected with me,” said Scott.
His team has already begun to brainstorm.
“We were talking about making a model of a machine that we could put in Third World countries that don’t have clean water or in flood zones or after hurricanes that has a massive filter in it that would suck up dirty water and put it in massive barrels of water that could be given to people who are less privileged and don’t have access to water,” said Scott.
Donna McMillan, vice-principal of Westminster Woods, said there was an application process for children interested in joining one of the school’s two teams.
“(Students) had to write out why they wanted to participate, what skills they would bring and their parents had to sign to say their child has time to spend (on the team),” said McMillan.
Sara Furnival, teacher-librarian at the school, said school staff were looking for a diversity of skills from the students when putting together the teams.
“We were looking for students who love building with Lego, but also students who are comfortable presenting, sharing ideas and students who love research,” said Furnival.
The school purchased the Lego MindStorm kits with the financial assistance of Synnex Corporation, a distributor of information technology products, which has a distribution centre in Guelph.
McMillan said the students would have had to fund raise for at least a year before purchasing the $1,200 worth of MindStorm kits and the teams would not have been able to participate in competition this fall.
Instead, the students are able to hit the ground running and will participate in a regional competition in Waterloo later in the fall.
“Now they are at the stage they are building these parts, they are researching water issues, they are thinking globally. It’s amazing,” said McMillan.
Shawn Ardiel, senior director product management for Synnex Corporation, said the STEM component of the program is important, but an equally important element of the program is the research, critical thinking and presentation.
“I think those are skills that very few people focus on until they are in college or even doing it on the job,” said Ardiel.
