BadgerBOTs Robotics Corporation celebrated their seventh regional annual First Lego League (FLL) tournament in the Madison College Truax gymnasium on Nov. 10. Attendance was great and excitement was greater.
The event took place in the cafeteria and hallways of the first floor. The building was alive with gifted youth and their families. First Lego League participants ranged from ages 6-14.
Minors above the age 14 are eligible to participate in First Tech Challenge or First Robotics Competition. Evan Bunkee, a student in the Machine Tool Program at Madison College, started participating in Robotics his senior year of high school, and volunteered during the tournament this past weekend.
Drawing on his experience in high school BadgerBOTS, Bunkee said, “I discovered that I like the hands-on side more than the designing side …that’s why I took Machining.”
“It started with BadgerBOTs and now it’s moving on, as soon as I get done with this I want to learn wielding and industrial robotics …I’ve always wanted to be someone who made things with my hands this [BadgerBOTs] sort of solidified it,” said Bunkee.
“We’re building kids, we’re not building a robot,” said Ben Senson.
Senson, a high school teacher at James Madison Memorial since 1991, began volunteering as a faculty mentor in 2003/2004. General Electric sponsored the first year of the high school robotics team. Continued support comes from companies such as Lands’ End, who help sponsor annual FLL events.
“Today at the opening ceremony we talked about a team last year that got a provisional patent, pitched the idea to a huge company, Lands’ End, and Lands’ End bought their intellectual property,” said Senson. At 7:30 a.m. volunteer judges were trained on how to evaluate.
Project judges, technical judges, and core values judges are professionals in their industries, teachers, and/or community members with an interest in the field of engineering.
Starting around 9 a.m., students shared their research and were graded on a standardized rubric. Next came the technical interview, where judges took students into the field and tried to find out how much they actually learned.
The next evaluation was in core values. Kids were given a surprise challenge. This year they were given a word, such as “HORSE” or “TRAIN” that they had to represent as a team. Teams were awarded with certificates such as “Gracious Professionalism,” “Perseverance,” “Inspiration,” or “Teamwork.” Finally, teams assembled in the gym and the robots rolled in front of other teams and families in a spectacular display.
“We may actually host a state event next year, this is the first time ever [at Madison College], great facility, fantastic resources, I’d love to be back,” said Senson.
Participants of BadgerBOTs have gone on to MIT, Berkley, UW School of Engineering with scholarships and full rides. Some have started careers working at Microsoft or in super computer labs.
“When our kids go off to college they tend not to change their major. We have kids who went here at MATC who have done programming, or are in the Industrial Manufacturing program. We have numerous alumni who are right here at MATC, and all over the planet doing great things,” Senson said.