Valley’s 21st Century Space Guys first in innovation for two years running
The 21st Century Space Guys, a team of 12- and 13-year-old Kentville students, are becoming known for their innovative ideas when it comes to robotics.
For the second year in a row, the team has placed first in the region in the Global Innovation Award rankings at Acadia Robotics.
21st Century Space Guys is a community-based Lego robotics team consisting of five students from the community of Kentville. This is their third year of competition in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL). Team members, all Grade 7 students at KCA, include Aaron Caines, Aidan Langille, Alex Churchill, Caden Schofield, and Thomas Duke. Coaches for the team are Kim O'Connor, David Duke and Emily Kennedy.
“The 21st Century Space Guys were first in our February event Global Innovation Award rankings and are the nominee for our region to advance their innovative project solution for further consideration at the FIRST Global Innovation Awards,” said Heather Fraser, robotics coordinator at Acadia Robotics.
The FIRST LEGO League Global Innovation Award showcases the real-world, innovative solutions created by FIRST LEGO League teams from around the world as part of their annually themed challenge.
“Each year teams work on a themed challenge. This year's challenge is RePLAY. RePLAY teams participating in the Innovation Project identify a problem related to people not being active enough, research the problem and design a new piece of technology or improve an existing one,” said Fraser.
“The 21st Century Space Guys chose to develop an app to encourage Kentville residents to take advantage of the trail systems in the community to exercise and improve their health,” said team coach Kim O'Connor.
Robot building is also part of the challenge.
“The challenge involves building a robot using the Lego Mindstorm EV3. It is one of the robotics kits and platforms used in the competitions. The students design the robot, including the driving base and attachments, to complete missions designed for the challenge each year. The missions and tasks are the same for teams around the world,” said O'Connor.
The students learn computer programming, engineering design process, and robot building along with other important critical thinking skills. “We see the connections students make to their communities, advocacy work, how they create solutions to help their community and use teamwork and discovery as the core values of their season. Teams have the opportunity to work on their soft skills; communication, public speaking, interpersonal skills, decision making, as they work through the challenge,” said Fraser.
Team member Thomas Duke enjoys learning.
“My favourite aspect is programming. It's great when you see what you have done, and the robot does what you want it to do. It's a huge relief when it works, but frustrating when it doesn't. I learn programming skills and teamwork.”
Aaron Caines, another team member, enjoys the competition.
“I really enjoy FLL, because it not only brings out our best innovative ideas, but in our team, we've all known each other for like, eight years, so we communicate (somewhat) well. We all really love the competition, because it's like a sport that you play, but using more of your mind than your physical body. We all love meeting up for practice, because it not only gives us an excuse not to do homework, but to do the things we all really love.”
The team will submit their innovative project solution to international judges from FIRST in the hopes of becoming one of 20 semi-finalists who will be invited to a twoday celebratory event which includes advice and access to resources relevant to pursuing their Project Innovative Solution, according to Fraser.
In 2021, the Global Innovation Awards will be held remotely from June 28–30.
Acadia Robotics, under the direction of Dr. Darcy Benoit of the Jodrey School of Computer Science, has hosted the FIRST LEGO League challenge competition for 15 years.
“The program supports teams in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. We have 25 teams registered for our FIRST LEGO League competition this year. Teams will compete again at our championship event May 2730, 2021,” said Fraser.
Due to the pandemic, Acadia made the early decision to pivot to a remote competition in 2021, allowing teams from P.E.I. to compete without travelling.
“Our program is very fortunate to have STEM professionals from industry as our judges, referees, and mentors to teams — Michelin Canada, Lockheed Martin, IBM,
NSCC, and REDspace are a few of our volunteer judge teams who support our program each year. It is a wonderful opportunity for students in the program to hear from STEM professionals in a way that supports their activities and helps them improve their competition presentations and robot games using STEM principles,” said Fraser.
The 21st Century Space Guys team is considering a patent application for last year's award-winning project.
“Last year's challenge was called City Shaper. It was about identifying problems and proposing solutions related to buildings or public spaces in our communities. The team designed a process and product for insulating floors in older buildings using precise 3D printing and recycled materials,” said O'Connor.