Ryan Salm/Nevada Appeal News Service Lukas Holst, 13, works on the molecular motor of a robotics project alongside Niko Sabah, 12, and Jackson Wood, 11, at North Tahoe Middle School on Wednesday. Their teacher, Michael Kahlich received a grant from the Excellence in Education Foundation to teach a Lego Robotics science class.
TRUCKEE - A Lego Robotics class at North Tahoe Middle School is providing junior high students with one of the most complex and comprehensive science curriculums in the district. The science course is based on an international program that immerses students in advanced technological concepts.
Funded by a $4,000 grant from the Excellence in Education Foundation, this science class is no toy-tinkering lab. Students in the Lego Robotics course - which is focusing this year on nanotechnology, the selected international topic - are responsible for building moving, workable robots; programming the computer chips that make them run; researching uses for nanotechnology; and presenting a final research project to a panel of critical judges.
"I'm a researcher, and our group's presentation will be on nano-engineered foods that change color if the food spoils," said eighth-grader Alexa Andrews. "The group comes up with questions and I e-mail them to professors at universities - there was one in Switzerland and another in Missouri. We've been asking about the chemicals that could be used and if there would be possible side-effects."
The curriculum used by North Tahoe is the same used around the world. The mother program - FIRST LEGO League International - was developed Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway Human Transporter, as a way to combine an educational context with hands-on challenges that culminate in an annual international competition.
"It's one of the most engaging high-order thinking projects I've ever seen for kids," said teacher Mike Kahlich. "These challenges would be difficult for college students, but the amazing thing is that these kids can do it. I think that most middle schoolers are greatly under-challenged."
In the robotics portion of the class, students are required to build and program a robot that can complete a nine-point obstacle course in less than ten minutes. The machine and it's challenges are meant to represent nano-sized robots and their theoretical capabilities.
This year's regional qualifier is only a month away, so Kahlich's students are preparing to buckle down and perfect their robots. If all goes well, they could be competing at the FIRST LEGO League World Festival in April at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Ga.
Anyone interested in assisting a Lego team at North Tahoe Middle School should contact Mike Kahlich at mkahlich@ttusd.org.