- Hey everybody, I'm Connor.
That's Doug and this is the Bethel School District Presents
podcast and we have a fantastic show for you.
This week we're taking a trip down memory lane.
We're talking Legos.
- Actually, Connor, before we get started, the plural
of Lego isn't actually Legos, it's actually just Lego.
- Oh well first that's really interesting.
Second, never interrupt me again.
- - Riddle me. This smart guy.
Then how come it's Domo or Gato? Lego Roboto.
- It's because those aren't actually the lyrics.
Domo, ato, Mr. Roboto.
- Well I think the good people
of Rush might disagree with you.
- . What sticks
- Dude?
Okay, nevermind then. But speaking of Lego
and speaking of robotics, you went over
to Camus Prairie recently
and talked to their Lego robotics team.
- I'm sitting here with Ben Wagner
and Keisha Rowe, coaches
of the Camus Prairie Elementary Lego team.
Ben, before we even get started, you came in today off
of paternity leave just for this interview.
So one, thank you. I'm honored.
You've obviously heard the show before
and are excited to be part of it or you've never heard of it
before and your principal told you to show up.
Either way, I'm excited you're here.
Do you wanna brag about your uh, newborn?
- Absolutely. It's a gift to be able to stay home for
so long and little guys growing up right before me
and it's gonna be tough to send 'em off to daycare.
But having the kids be excited
to see me this afternoon might make it a little bit easier,
but who knows, there still might be some tears when it gotta
drop 'em off that first day.
- I'm sure there will be. We did have to drag you out
of recess before I got here to come be part of the podcast.
I know you're excited to be back here
and we're excited to have you.
Ben, you've taught PE here
and been a coach of the Lego robotics team
for nine years here at Camas Prairie Elementary.
Keisha, this is your third year as coach.
You teach fourth grade and you've done that for five years.
That's 3, 4, 5 right in a row.
And then let's go on to 7, 8, 9.
Somewhere in there is
how long you taught at f Fredrickson Elementary.
I believe the kids call that a hot minute.
So that's all we're gonna leave it at.
Thank you for joining us as well
and I'm gonna start you both off with an easy question.
Did you play with Legos as a kid And if so,
was the coolest thing you ever built, Keisha? I
- Actually have not played
with any Legos when I was younger.
Tetris would probably come close to that,
but that was probably the coolest thing. .
- Interesting. Okay. I was not expecting
that answer. Ben, how about you?
- Absolutely loved Legos as a kid.
Kind of guilty of still playing with some of the sets
that the kids get in the mail when they show up
here for robotics.
And I maybe have taken the robots home a time or two
and done a little coding myself.
So it's always tough to get away from it
and love to play around with the Legos
and try new things with them.
- Absolutely. Let's talk about the robotics arm
of Lego technology is advancing at an incredibly rapid pace
just in my lifetime.
And yours maybe not as much.
You look, both look a little younger than me,
but I've seen the invention
of the first personal computer gaming systems, car phones,
cell phones, handheld gaming systems,
the internet MP three players, smartphone smart watches,
personal drones, self-driving cars,
and the rise of artificial intelligence.
It's more important than ever
that students get the opportunity to safely learn about
and how to safely use technology
because there isn't a job out there
that won't be impacted in some way.
How does Lego robotics fit into that?
- As someone who taught fifth grade for over 10 years,
I feel like it's, you know, technology is a skill
that you must have, right?
For all students. So I see it in a way
where colleges may not be for every kiddo, right?
And if it's not, it could be an outlet for other students.
So just by coding, if a student graduates high school just
learning how to code, they could start off at 90 grand at a
big, you know, Google, Microsoft, you know, Amazon company.
So that's kind of cool.
- Yeah, I agree that it's awesome
that the kids have a chance to learn some
of those engineering practices
and when I was a kid we were always told to go
to the Almanac and now it's kids are supposed
to Google things and need to identify those resources.
So it's very exciting to see kids using their resources,
whether it's YouTube or other things they can find on the
internet and take those ideas
and implement 'em into things that they're working on
and teaching them that perseverance
and that it's not copying somebody if you take their great
idea that works for something
and you tweak it to make it work for themselves.
So it's just that animating their creations
and just adding that extra layer
and experience that is so applicable to life these days,
even for nine and 10-year-old kids.
- Absolutely. Lego Robotics a great extracurricular
where kids can learn about that kind of thing
and they're also learning it in class thanks to our voters.
I always like to give a thanks to our voters
who approved our technology levee started back in 2014,
renewed in 2018, renewed again in 2022.
And that is putting an iPad in the hands of every kid
so they can learn good digital citizenship at an early age.
And like you said, how to research, how to take in all
of this information that's out there
and process it into usable chunks for them
to use in their education.
So that is very exciting For both of you.
What got you interested in coaching robotics?
- That goes right back to the last question.
Technology is advancing
and as a teacher I need to stay on top.
So I figured this will be a good way to learn new things
that I could use in my classroom
and outside of the classroom.
- I kind of got suckered into it my first year here
at at chemist.
Uh, the current coach needed some help
and I thought it was an awesome opportunity
that I hadn't seen it any
of the other buildings I've been in
and I've kind of just stuck around since
and other coaches have come and gone.
But it's definitely awesome to be able
to have another adult in the building
and spend time working with the kids
and as a specialist, I see kids for
six years if they stay in the building,
but it's a whole nother level that you get to work
with them when it's, it know 10 kids
and they're there for a shared interest
and it's just a great opportunity.
We have parents who are coming back
and we've had siblings over the years
so it's just an awesome experience to be able to share
with those kids and just another dynamic
that makes working at elementary school school so awesome
- And what an awesome opportunity to just, you know, build
that relationship with the students
outside of the classroom.
So I have a few students who are in robotics
that are in my current class
and you wouldn't think they would be, you know, uh,
they wouldn't enjoy something outside of the classroom
but just seeing them, you know, grow
and make progress with while playing
or learning how to, you know, code
and everything else has been a cool experience.
- And I wanna give a shout out to the Bethel School District
for always supplying us with sets and kits
and the opportunities for transportation
and everything else that goes along with this
because I know there's lots of other districts
and things like that in the area
that don't have these opportunities
'cause they just don't have the
support from the district level.
So we appreciate that
and it's always exciting to get the new things in the mail
and have those emails starting in August just
to make sure we're we're doing it again.
So we really appreciate that opportunity and so do the
- Kids.
I'm glad you brought that up
'cause there are a lot of moving parts.
There's the coaches, there's the kids
and then like you mentioned, there's transportation,
there's people working behind the scenes
to make sure you have the latest
and the greatest so that our kids can have
that opportunity to succeed.
In Lego robotics, students build
and code robots to do various tasks
and navigate obstacles along the way.
They're also learning teamwork and communication skills
and a trophy at the end of the season is nice.
As coaches, what does success look like to you? Success
- Looks like kids having fun.
They're learning, they're interacting, communicating,
you know, socializing with each other
as they are working together throughout the missions.
- Like Keisha said, it's seeing those kids work together
and I especially like when we have fourth graders working
with fifth graders
or there's kids that may not be friends in the classroom
but they can get together
and have this sort of universal understanding that they have
to be teammates and some
of the loudest cheers I ever hear When these kids accomplish
a mission that they've been working on for hours on end
and they finally get it, it's awesome.
And another aspect of that is, as bad as it sounds,
we do love to see the failure and then to see them persevere
and bounce back and have other kids support them and,
and they really do form a tight bond here
and they support each other and they're happy to help
and jump in and lead each other to success.
What whatever that looks like for the day
or the the tournament or the week. Well
- Your team this year has been top notch
to advance to the semi-finals.
Didn't make it to the finals this year
but there's always next year.
What I really like about Lego robotics is it's not called a
competition, it's, I think it's cooperation.
Am I saying that right? Tell us about that.
- It's all about teamwork.
I mean one can't do the whole Lego robotics, you know,
challenge by themself.
So I mean even within the competition it's three rounds, two
and a half minutes and you could accomplish
as many missions as you can.
So with that said, you had about 12 missions
or 12 to 15 missions that you're working through
and then at the finals you have to figure out
what are the missions that we are confident with that we can
get within the two and a half minutes.
- Yeah, that's a lot for a team of fourth
and fifth graders to be figuring out to,
to work together like that Ben?
- Absolutely we, we love the cooperation aspect of it.
It's a very long day for us and all the kids
but seeing them show up and all the other teams
and there's teams that have silly costumes
and there's teams that have handwritten notes, they like
to hand out to all the other teams.
And one of the other things that the people at Lego do is
they always have a collaborative mission.
So your team scores extra points if you
and the other team that you are at the table
with at the same time complete that same mission.
So they really do make it clear that it's not a competition
between you and any of the other teams
but you guys are actually collaborating
and working together to cooperate.
And obviously we want to compete
and we want our team to go the furthest
but they've definitely set it up
where it's more about the teamwork aspect and
and just having fun versus who can be the best team
- Cooperation.
That's cool. I had not heard that but I love it.
What a great mindset to foster teamwork.
But Doug did you talk to any kids?
- I sure did. I sat down with Noah, Aubrey
and Ezra, all members of the Camas Prairie Elementary
robotics team and we kicked off our conversation talking
about their ascent to the semifinals EZ were for you,
you were at the semifinals.
What were the obstacle courses like?
- Well it was like we were trying to get as many
as done as we could but it was kind of challenging.
A couple we missed and different rounds.
- Noah people are listening to this as as a podcast,
they can't see the course.
Can you describe what the course looked like for them?
- The course looked like in the middle at the giant Seattle
Space Needle and on the sides of that was a printer,
a a guy with a chicken, a stage,
a flower, a dragon and more.
- Wow. And Aubrey, what did your robot have to do with,
especially with the guy with the chicken,
- We didn't do the chicken but you would have to go forward
and then make something that goes up and then it falls down.
So it would rotate all around
- So you know what the course is like ahead of time.
But one robot wouldn't be able to do every single task.
That would be a pretty tall feat.
Ezra, how many tasks did you try to get your robot to do?
- Well we did the space needle, the printer
of the flower or the stage
or the rolling camera and the dragon.
So that would be six.
And we were working on a couple others
but we never actually did them.
- Okay. It's a lot of programming, a lot
of building that goes into that.
That's awesome that you did six.
I know that you guys got close
but did not advance to the finals.
That's a bummer. But there's always next year.
I guess my question for you Noah, is how close did you get
and how did you feel on the uh, semifinals?
- We got very close.
I, this is my first year being robotics
and I heard that this the farthest that we ever got in
so I'm very proud that we got to
the farthest that we ever made to
- You guys did make it far farthest
of any school in our district.
So congratulations to the three of you.
What initially made you interested in joining robotics?
Whose first year is it here?
- This year was my first year and it was fun
and exciting that I got to have the experience of joining
and I wasn't sure what it would be like
but now that I've gone to at least two competitions,
it's really fun and you get to, you get to play with a robot
and you get to code and work on placement.
- It's really inspiring to be able to
code, build legos
and set it up where you want to go.
For my first year being here, it was very complicated
because we're new to this thing
and we, not sure what the plays or all the attachments
but all through the two competitions
and all the practices, it was very
fun and all our teamwork paid off
on a very hard work.
- It absolutely did.
These are not your regular Legos,
like you would get in a Star Wars set
or a Harry Potter set or something like that.
These are very different. Ezra,
you're the veteran on the team.
This has been your second year. Yeah.
What got you into Legos in the first place?
- Well I've loved building with Legos forever
and when I first was crossing guard
I saw these legos in Mr.
Wagner's office place
and I thought, whoa what, what are these for?
Are they for a game? And then I realized they were
for Lego robotics and I'm like, oh I get to build
with these, I'm, I'm gonna join.
And then the next year I thought, oh it's really fun
and I wanna join it again and I gotta have a team.
And I think that having a team
and building, building with people
and coding with people, it gives
legos another like what's it called?
Another like place up in how it is.
- I love that there's coding, there's building
and then there are other elements to Lego robotics too,
including your team's core values.
We don't need to go through all of them here.
I'm sure you all have them memorized
or at least written on your hand somewhere.
But if you could each tell me one
of your team's core values.
Let's start with you Noah. One
- Of the theme core values was having fun.
It was fun. That's the most important thing.
Kind of to have fun, to be able to laugh it out
or just experience it like for the first time in your life
to make you think like this opportunity
was a good idea that you choose.
- Well said Aubrey, how about you?
- One of the core values is I liked how we got
to do specific coding on specific things instead
of having one thing that we had to do.
So I liked that we got to choose that
and I think one of the core values was that
we should work together.
- That's critical when it comes to teamwork.
Ezra, let's round it out with you.
What was another one of your team's core values?
- I remember there is perseverance
as a core value
because if you don't have perseverance doing this,
you you keep failing
and failing while you're doing these things
and you're failing 'cause that's a part of it.
You have to fail to succeed
and if you keep failing and you're like, oh I can't do this
and you don't persevere, you just wanna quit robotics.
So I think perseverance is a very important core value.
- It absolutely is. You can learn through that struggle
and come out the other side a stronger team because of it.
And that will look even better on you guys next year when
I'm sure you are headed to the finals.
Let's talk beyond that.
Let's talk the future of Lego robotics.
What is something that you all think that they should add
to Lego robotics in the future? Abra your hands up.
- I think one of the things that that we,
that they should add to the future of robotics is drones.
Like a Lego drone that you can control with like one
of the controllers so you don't have to use an iPad
or a computer or something.
'cause if you have it there then you can just practice
coding on one of those
and it would have pieces for the Legos to be
and then you wouldn't have to practice lifting things up.
You could just go wherever you want
and then do like what you think is easiest.
- Wow. And really real world applications for that one.
If you learn how to fly a drone early,
there's gonna be jobs in the future I'm sure.
Noah, how about you? Future
of Lego robotics. What do you see?
- I'm looking at something kind of cool like
a robotic boat that just goes over
to like either the flower or the stage to get hit those
and come back where it was.
- That's an interesting idea 'cause it's the map right now
is all dry, is that right?
- And if we add water
but then water we can act like the boat is on the
swimming all the way to the other attachments.
- Interesting. Okay, so we have, we have water, we have air.
Ezra over to you. Future of Lego robotics. What do you got?
- Well I was thinking like in robotics you always have
to build like attachments that go up
and down to push levers and stuff like that.
But I was thinking why not build stuff
where like you have ramps and you go up
and like when you go onto the platform it goes down
and it's pressurized
or you drive into something not having to lift your thing
and it just goes in and it goes up.
But you have to get a certain amount of force
so it'll hit something like,
like the bead side might hit a little button on the inside
and like make a waterfall like it was a dam
and make a waterfall.
Then you can deploy your boat.
Like how Noah said,
I'm thinking maybe they could have seasonal things like
seasonal versions.
Like for winter you could have like the winter themed board
for fall you could have the fall themed board for summer,
you could have the summer theme board
and for spring you could have like the spring theme board.
- I love that idea. Expanding Lego robotics throughout the
entire year, not just for for one season.
That's a great idea. Last question for you three
before I know at least one
of you is missing lunch actively at the moment.
So hopefully your coaches will help make up for that.
Um, but let's take robotics into your homes.
If you could build a robot that would do one household chore
for you, what chore would it be? Noah?
- One chore I would want for my robots
to do when I build it.
I wanted to clean the bathrooms
and sweep my floor for
- Me it's a dirty job and somebody's gotta do it.
It'd be nice if it was a robot, however. How about you? I
- Would want the robot to clean my room
'cause my room is constantly a mess
and I never want to clean it. ,
- That's a very relatable problem. Ezra, how about you?
- I also want my robot to clean my room because my mom
and dad are always like, oh, clean the room.
But I'm like, but then when they clean it,
I don't know where every anything is.
So I like having it a mess 'cause then I know where it is.
So if I could have a robot, I would ha I'd be able
to program it to clean, clean
and put stuff away where I want it to go.
And also I'd want it to take out the garbage
because I hate washing my hands after doing that.
Like it just takes too long.
And it'd be cool if there's a robot that could go downstairs
- That would be really cool.
That really expands to the entire house
if you have a two floor house.
I agree. Taking out trash is really gross.
I always have to wash my hands too.
'cause inevitably something drips on it.
But if I could create a robot, which I can't, but if I could
or if I could maybe hire you three to create a robot,
I'd have it do the dishes for me
because that just seems to be a never ending battle.
- How much would you pay? ?
- Yes. Yes. - That's awesome.
What a great interview. And I love their entrepreneurial
spirit, business people in the maker.
- It was a blast getting the chance to chat with them.
We hope you enjoyed our conversation today
and we will chat with you next week.