LEGO robots take over Durham College

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Seeming to act on their own accord, the tiny LEGO robots zipped across the tables, completing tasks and earning points for the teams of youngsters eagerly watching from the sidelines. Of course, the bots did not have minds of their own, but were pre-programmed by the young minds standing nearby, all of them part of the top 40 teams from across the GTA, Ottawa and North Bay that took part in the FIRST LEGO League eastern provincial championship at Durham College on Jan. 14.

The teams took part in a series of events which saw them not only program a robot to do their bidding, but also present their findings on a research project geared around the theme of animal allies – specifically, finding ways to improve the interactions between humans and animals.

The competition – the first of two to be held at the Oshawa college campus, with the second coming in March for the high school age group – is organized by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST).

As the acronym suggests, the programs are geared toward getting young students involved in science and technology, and for Dave Ellis, the director of the FIRST Lego League in Ontario, it is those young students at Durham College on Saturday that they are really looking to communicate with.

“Research shows that this is the age-group that we actually need to target for making change in kids’ attitudes about this kind of thing,” he says. “Typically, by the time they get into high school, they’ve kind of decided whether they want to do STEM related stuff or not.”

STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math, programs have been fighting to attract interested students, especially at the post secondary level. A 2013 study performed by Let’s Talk Science found that less than half of high school grads in Canada were leaving with senior STEM courses. It’s a troubling fact when 70 per cent of top jobs require these areas of expertise.

For Durham College president Don Lovisa, this program is a chance for students to get an early introduction into the college atmosphere and, according to him, it works.

“It’s that next generation of possible students and the interesting thing is we have had students come to Durham College who have competed in these (FIRST) contests,” he says, particularly noting the need for woman in these career paths.

“We need young woman in the sciences and engineering so, if you can keep that spark alive and they can get some idea of what the college environmental is like, that’s great,” he says.

According to Ellis, FIRST has a trio of programs geared toward students all the way from kindergarten to high school, that aim at grabbing their interest early on.  He adds that surveys performed at the high school level suggest the program has an impact at getting kids interested in a career in STEM. For Ellis, there’s no question.

“We have this continuum of programs that hopefully captures the kids at a really young age,” he says. “I have no doubt that it changes attitudes toward the programs.”