The return of Lego League

Sadly, Sunday's FIRST Lego League friendly robotics tournament had to be cancelled. This was upsetting for the teens from the Kiddiwinks team as well as the Funky Moneky Clan from Somerset College and the Live Wires team from Belgravia High in Athlone.

''We were so sad,'' said Bashiera Allie, the team leader for Live Wires.

Other teams, including All Sparks, led by Aakirah Firfirey from Belgravia High in Athlone, simply had to cancel because the end-of-school-year marks had to be in by noon on Monday. Teachers sinply had to work all weekend marking papers.

A number of teams - Dynamic Dynamos from Science Educational Resources Initiative (SERI) in Khayeltisha, Robotronics from Bishops College in Rondebosch - sent apologies because the schools have already broken up for South Africa's holidays.

It is thought that the schools that didn't respond - including Micro Maniacs, the provincial champions from Elkanah House in Tableview - may have already ended for the holidays, with exams done and the lure of the beach overwhelming!

The Times, November 1

The Times newspaper ran their report on the FIRST Lego League (seen above, in a picture supplied by organiser Peter Pretorius) on Thursday, November 1, profiling Elkanah House and using a photograph of a team from Kiddiwinks.

Since South Africa and Egypt are the only countries out of 50 that participate in the student robot championships, we would like to urge science organisations and schools in countries like Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Nigeria to join us - we need the competition!

pictures from FIRST Lego League

Pictures of the 2007 Western Cape FIRST Lego League have been uploaded at:

http://robotrix.bizland.com/WP-Champs%202007/index.html

Micro Maniacs win 2007 Cape FIRST Lego League

Michael Struwig, Jonathan Wotherspoon and Davis Todt kneel down with the team's yellow Lego-block trophies, victorious at the end of the hard-fought 2007 Western Cape robotic championships, backed by team-mates Daniel Stokell, Dylan Vorster, Allister Smith and Daniel Jacobs.

The boys will be keeping a close eye on Sebokeng/Vanderbijlpark region this Saturday, which will be crawling, buzzing and whirring with robots. Forty schools from across Gauteng, the northern Free State, North West Province, and Mpumalanga have entered the northern championships at the Mittal Steel Science Centre.

The Micro Maniacs team from Elkanah House, a school in Tableview, will be battling whichever robots win in the Sebokeng/Vanderbijlpark region at the nationals later this year.

The Micro Maniac's coach, teacher Melany Liebich, said her team has now won the Western Cape championships for two years in a row.

One of her team members, Michael Struwig, a grade nine student, said Elkanah House was the highest-ranked team out of all the 2006 regionals. Sadly, due to a design flaw - a tank-style tread which stripped off in the heat of battle - the Micro Maniacs finished eighth in the nationals last year.

''This year we hope to do better at the nationals,'' predicted Michael, noting pointedly that the students designed their 2007 robot to use four wheels rather than a tank tread. ''And better gearing,'' he added.

i-Robo team enjoys Lego League

Wandile Ganya, Vuyelwa Dlungane and Loyiso Matyumza pose with Tiro Motaung (their coach) peering over fellow team members Azola Hobongwana and Bulumko Matshoba.

They are members of the i-Robo team - grade 10 students from Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) school in Khayelitsha - who fought bravely in the 2007 FIRST Lego League championships at the MTN Sciencentre on Saturday October 27.

The team suffered several setbacks this year.

Wandile Ganya was feverishly revising the design of their robots on Saturday morning after being told that the attachments did not meet the specifications required, which were buried in pages of data.

Later the students discovered that obstacles from previous missions were not cleared between events, forcing their robots to maneouvre around blockages on the field of battle.

Coach Tiro Motaung said he was more upset at the results than his students were, who enjoyed the competition regardless.

Next year, he suggested, a preliminary try-out might be a good idea a week or so beforehand so students can get their competition nerves and fluffs out of the way.

With many students not having English as a mother tongue, Mr Motaung noted, it was difficult for them to understand the written instructions unless there was a strong graphic element.

* Thanks to Steve Sherman from Living Maths, who sent these photos off at an ungodly hour on Sunday evening, going above and beyond the call of duty.

Belgravia High robotics team win best coach

The Live Wires from Belgravia High, above, won the prizes for best coach for Mr Reagen Ford as well as for the most innovative research at the FIRST Lego League, said teacher Ghairoe Jacobs.

The team members of the Live Wires group, as pictured, are: (sitting) Aghtiri Mohamed, Bashiera Allie, Raheema Enus and Ryan Adams. Standing: Mehtaab Khan, Fehraaz Petersen, a supporter (Tabasum Mohamed), Jasson Kloppers, Imraan Kaprey, Adrian Rudolph, Zubair Banderker, and another fan/spectator (Zaahira Allie).

''Mr Ford (below) is the best teacher ever, he really deserves it,'' said Bashiera Allie. ''I think Saturday was the best day of my life. It was the first time that I partook in an event like this. It was just awesome.''



''Hopefully we can join next year again. It was a really an experience of a life time,'' Bashiera, the Live Wires team leader, said. ''I wish we could turn back time: all the memories, all the fun and all the fights made this the best, something I wouldn’t exchange for anything. Life is all about having fun and we had the most fun that day.''

Sadly, the team placed sixth in the Western Cape round of robotics, held at the MTN Sciencentre, Mrs Jacobs said. Nonetheless, she said, the learners enjoyed the experience.

''Generally, they found the tournament exciting and a good learning experience,'' she said. ''During the preparation, relationships are normally riddled with torment but at the end of the day it brings them closer together and cements them in unity.''

The Live Wires are all in grade 11, with ages ranging from 15 to 17. The school is situated in Athlone, and in particular Belgravia Estate.

Most of the learners originate from the surrounding areas like Rylands, Lansdowne and Athlone.

Thanks to Steve Sherman from Living Maths, who supplied the photo. Belgravia school is on 021 6965118.

FIRST Lego League's Pyro Maniacs

Ian Swart, Kyle Johnson and Andre Schwartz designing the robot which will be in action today at the FIRST Lego League tournament, on the theme of ''power puzzle.''

Other members of the team: Thoriso Tsheole, Jonathan Kukard and Michael Hedenskog.

Candace Rennie, the coach, predicts great things!

FIRST Lego League returns

FIRST Lego League returns to the MTN Sciencentre on Saturday October 27 2007!

An international robotics competition (see above, with Western Cape education minister Cameron Dugmore monitoring proceedings) comes to Cape Town on the morning of Saturday October 27.

''Bring your ear plugs, or your vuvuzelas, for the First Lego League tournament,'' said the host, Julie Cleverdon, director of the MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk shopping mall.

''It's noisy,'' happily admitted head judge Peter Pretorius, managing director of the non-profit science communication organisation ZelTech in Vanderbijlpark, who flies into the city on Thursday to prepare for the event.

''It's the only science event where children actually shout for science,'' he said. ''What is important for me is to make it so they can shout the same way they do in the rugby world cup final, to get the children really excited.''

17 teams are participating, with robots racing against the clock to perform tasks from 10 am until 3 pm, said Jani de Bruin of the MTN Sciencentre. She encouraged people to attend the competition, saying the centre was having a special R10 entry for the day.

14-year-old student Nanzi Siyo from the Science Education Resources Initiative (SERI) in Khayelitsha participated in the FIRST Lego League last year. ''The competition was tough, the other teams were brilliant and we did very badly,'' remembered the grade nine Luhlaza High School student.

''But then, we didn't have the experience. Now, we are confident about our project
and we expect to do very well.''

Nanzi described the robots as being shoe-sized: ''Size 7.''

Her colleague in the Dynamic Dynamos team, Sive Gladile, said the students built the robots under the guidance of coach (and teacher) Peter Oxenham and programmed them to perform missions. ''Ja, I'm a bit nervous, I haven't experienced this yet,'' she admitted.



Their team will be up against Belgrava High, Westerford, American International School of Cape Town, Bishops, SACS junior school, Elkanah House and Somerset College, as well as Kiddiwinks shop and the ORT-tech programme.

The i-Robo team is composed of grade 10 students Izola Hobongwana, Loyiso Matyumza, Bulumko Matshoba, Wandile Ganya and Vuyelwa Dlungane from Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) school in Khayelitsha.

''I'm hoping they'll be in the top five,'' predicted coach Tiro Motaung from
Rondebosch. ''The Lego League competitions are a fun activity to see and
participate in but I think the students have already had the most fun when
they got the kits for the first time. They were overwhelmed by the small
Lego pieces. The process of building the machines and trying to understand
what they do caused a lot of laughter.''

The Cape Town students form a fraction of the international total: 100,000
children from 50 countries participate in the FIRST Lego League each year.
Only South Africa and Egypt participate from the African continent.

''For me, to watch the children performing on the playing field, seeing the
passion with which they approach science and engineering and technology, is
absolutely fabulous,'' head judge Peter Pretorius said.

''I love robots,'' Pretorius said. ''I started with computers and it was
just a natural advancement into robots, they're just computers that move
around.''

The Cape Town event kicks of a nationwide series of FIRST Lego League
events, including a tournament in Gauteng the following weekend (November
3), a special tournament for Jewish schools in Sandton and an Eastern Cape
competition on December 1 at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in
Port Elizabeth.

Saturday morning's event is being underwritten by the Canal Walk Foundation,
the first corporate social investment programme to have been created by a
South African shopping centre, said Vanessa Herbst. ''We support education, so naturally we support what the FIRST Lego League is doing.''


Note to eds: fabulous photos available from earlier FIRST Lego Leagues on
request from Jani de Bruin on 021 5298128 or 0823 276 9509 or email
jani.debruin@mtnsciencentre.org.za

Team contacts:

Elkanah House: Melany Liebich T: 021 554 8139 C: 083 928 8732 Email:
melanyl@elkanah.co.za

Somerset College: Tony Shuttleworth T: 021 856 3843 Email:
tshuttleworth@worldonline.co.za

SACS Junior: Eloise Baker T: 021 689 4110 Email: bakerma@iafrica.com

American International School of Cape Town: Rick Briggs T: 021 713 2220
rbriggs@aisct.org.za

Bishops: Mervin Walsh C: 084 658 9599 H: 021 658 6587 mwalsh@bishops.org.za

Belgravia High: Ghairoe Jacobs C: 084 584 1898 geejacobs@yahoo.com

Westerford High: Andre Engel T: 021 689 9154 F: 021 685 5675
AE@whs.wcape.school.za

Kiddiwinks: Kevin Poulter C: 082 882 6164 info@kiddiwinks.co.za

Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT): Tiro Motaung T: 084 899 2754
Tiro.motaung@gmail.com

Science Education Resources Initiative (SERI) Peter Oxenham C: 076 171 6208
peter@seri.org.za

ORT Tech: Kevin Valensky T: 021 529 8168 kevin@ortsa.org.za

Peter Pretorius is available for interviews in English and Afrikaans on 082
479 2714. His website is http://www.zeltech.org/

For more information on the First Lego League, their website is
www.FirstLegoLeague.org