will.illinois.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2007-05-03-b WILL Public Media, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Series Segment Hobbies, Science/Nature, Champaign, Champaign County, WILL Custom Prairie Fire Subject Headings First Lego League by Eleanore Stasheff When I heard about a team of six middle school girls who designed a robot out of Legos that was going to an international competition in the Netherlands, the first thing I thought was “Wow, I can barely build a house out of legos.” I decided that their story had be told – people had to know about a group of kids from Champaign, Ill., who could make a nationally award-winning robot. It sounded like the kind of fairy-tale story that happens in movies and after-school specials, but that you would never think about happening in your own backyard. It was a Saturday afternoon in late April when I first met the team, well three of them. I arrived at the unassuming Next Generation Middle School and filmed B-roll footage with Bridget Mueller-Brennan, Elinor and Yasmin Nadir, and the two coaches Joe Muskin and Jim Brennan. As I filmed them working on improving their robot I was stunned to see how smart and creative these girls were. They were not only building a robot in front of me, but they were programming it and making it perform simple tasks. They had problems getting the robot to move correctly and spent most of the two hours I was there adjusting the programming and discussing what the problems were and how they could be fixed. They were children, but talked like college students as they munched on popcorn and sifted through boxes of complex Legos that I don’t think they sold when I was kid. All around me in this small, three-room school that was next door to a Cardinal Fitness gym were pictures that were drawn by 10- or 12-year-olds that were better than pictures I could draw now. Signs in multiple languages hung on the walls, or sat on desktops. I could feel an aura of creativity and an encouragement of learning that I wished every school had, and I must confess I was rather envious that Next Generation wasn’t around when I was in school. I was incredibly impressed with the knowledge and imagination that the three girls presented as I filmed them, and the encouragement and excitement of the coaches as I talked with them. I would have liked to interview all of the girls, but time constraints prohibited me from interviewing them on more than one day, so only two of the girls were interviewed. I’m just so impressed with those girls, and with the coaches and the school for having a program like this that encourages learning science and computer skills in a fun and competitive way, and I only hope the Prairie Fire segment about them adequately shows how amazing they are, and how amazing it is that they went so far in their first year. I want to thank Aramael Pena-Alcantara and the Pena-Alcantara Family for providing all the great pictures and footage from the First Lego League contest in the Netherlands, and Amy Mueller for being a vital communications link with the team, and for sending out the press release that let me know about this remarkable group of girls. Abstract Magazine PBCore Genre Picklist Is Part Of http://will.illinois.edu/prairiefire/episode/pf2007-05-03 Illinois, Indiana Spatial Intermediate (grades 7-9)|High School (grades 10-12)|Primary (grades 1-6)|College|Post Graduate|General Education|General TV-G Eleanore Stasheff Producer WILL-TV, University of Illinois Copyright Holder Publisher © 2009 University of Illinois 2007-05-03T09:18:00-06:00 2007-05-03T09:18:00-06:00 video/x-pn-realvideo http://willmedia.will.uiuc.edu/ramgen/pf2007-05-03-b.rv Moving Image RealSystems Real Media 9 27701 00:05:21 eng pf2007-05-03-b.rv WILL Public Media, University of Illinois 2007-05-03T09:18:00-06:00 2007-05-03T09:18:00-06:00 video/mp4 http://willmedia.atlas.uiuc.edu/mpeg4/pf2007-05-03-b.mp4 Moving Image MPEG video MPEG-4 00:05:21 eng pf2007-05-03-b.mp4 WILL Public Media, University of Illinois 2007-05-03T09:18:00-06:00 2007-05-03T09:18:00-06:00 video/x-flv http://willmedia.atlas.uiuc.edu/flash/pf2007-05-03-b.flv Moving Image Flash Video Flash Media 8 00:05:21 eng pf2007-05-03-b.flv WILL Public Media, University of Illinois