Fourth and fifth grade members of the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville prepare on Monday to compete in a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Small details of a project the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville is preparing to take to a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Dustin Shevy, the club’s adviser and the school’s innovation specialist, guides fourth and fifth grade members of Harrison Elementary School’s Hawk Bot Squ@d on Monday.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Janesville City Engineer Brad Reents offers feedback Monday to fourth and fifth-grade members of the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville as they prepare to compete in a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Fourth and fifth-grade members of the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville prepare on Monday to compete in a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Fourth and fifth-grade members of the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville prepare on Monday to compete in a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Fourth and fifth grade members of the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville prepare on Monday to compete in a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Small details of a project the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Small details of a project the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville is preparing to take to a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Dustin Shevy, the club’s adviser and the school’s innovation specialist, guides fourth and fifth grade members of Harrison Elementary School’s Hawk Bot Squ@d on Monday.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Janesville City Engineer Brad Reents offers feedback Monday to fourth and fifth-grade members of the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville as they prepare to compete in a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Fourth and fifth-grade members of the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville prepare on Monday to compete in a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
Fourth and fifth-grade members of the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary School in Janesville prepare on Monday to compete in a First Lego League sectional tournament on Saturday, Dec. 10 in Mukwonago.
Photo courtesy Greg Little/Janesville School District
JANESVILLE—During what is referred to as Computer Science Education Week, students at Harrison Elementary School are readying to compete against other schools in a First Lego League sectional tournament Saturday in Mukwonago.
The nationwide league is or students from pre-kindergarten to high school. Teams use computer science skills to compete in regional, sectional, state and national events.
Fourth and fifth-grade members of the Hawk Bot Squ@d at Harrison Elementary learn and practice problem solving and communication using STEAM—science, technology, engineering and math—skills, said Dustin Shevy, the club’s adviser and the school’s innovation specialist.
Club members use coding to create robots out of Legos to move objects on a table, among other activities. Members also have discussions about energy and how to create energy, Shevy said.
“We build, code, run (and) repeat. We just have to persevere. Mistakes happen multiple times throughout the day, and it’s like, ‘No, it didn’t work. Let’s figure out what happened,’” Shevy said.
Power
The theme of this year’s competitions is power, which will be highlighted with charging batteries.
“The club is about what kind of an impact we can have on a community, so that’s why we chose this project,” Shevy said.
The club has six core values: fun, discovery, teamwork, inclusion, innovation and impact, Shevy noted.
City engineer visit
Ahead of the sectional, Janesville City Engineer Brad Reents met with Hawk Bot Squ@d on Monday.
In what Shevy called a practice run, students told Reents about the project and what they were trying to accomplish. Shevy challenged the students to keep their presentation to Reents to five minutes, which is a requirement when they speak with judges Saturday in Mukwonago.
They told him they were trying to see how possible it was to create electricity for neighborhoods with water. They knew it was not practical to hook up devices to every faucet in neighborhoods.
That is how they came up with the idea to to build a water tower to create hydroelectricity. The tower consists of a bucket with two pipes extending from the bottom. One pipe has a turbine in it.
“You guys are right on the money with your project,” Reents said.
Shevy told Reents that the tower had not been functional as of the presentation, but he and the students had been looking for solutions. Reents suggested putting the turbine at the base of the tower.
During the presentation to Reents, students engaged in conversation, including adding qualifiers to statements like, “If you hook up too many houses to the tower, it could impact the water supply for others.”
Reents said he was blown away by the students’ knowledge and ability to come up with a project like this.
“These are all things I was going over in college,” Reents said.
‘Pretty fun’
“It’s pretty fun. Everyone is included in most of the important decisions,” said Hadley, a student in the club. “We really try to include everyone and everyone has a say.”
“It’s time consuming but we try to include everyone,” said Audrey, another club member.
Creating ideas and applying the STEAM skills they learn is what the club is about, Shevy said.
“It’s the kids. It’s their ideas. We let them do it,” Shevy said. “It’s really giving students opportunities and our job is to monitor what they are doing.”
Harrison students were originally slated to participate in a regional tournament this Saturday at Janesville Parker High School.
However, they were bumped to the BadgerLand-Wolfpack FLL Tournament regional at Madison Area Technical College in November. That’s how Hawk Bot Squ@d qualified for Saturday’s sectional at Park View Middle School, 930 N. Rochester St. in Mukwonago.
The regional competition in Janesville will be at Parker High School, 3125 Mineral Point Ave., from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
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