Building for the Future: Lego Robotics makes its debut at PVS

On January 24, sophomores Aribah Morshed and Ahmad Elabiad kickstarted the PVS Lego Robotics Club for middle school students. “We wanted to create a club that would allow students interested in the robotics field to explore programming, specifically with lego robots,” said Elabiad. “I have always enjoyed the engineering field and wanted to share that passion with other students.”

Elabiad and Morshed introduced club members to Lego Mindstorms, a branch of the Lego company that focuses on the development of programmable robots built with Lego blocks. The students picked the projects they wanted to work on and began developing their robots, which they will continue to work on for the next few weeks. Afterwards, they will move on to programming the robots through the Lego Mindstorms software. One of the students, Munim Hangora, a 6th grader, said, “I like robotics in general and I also like the programming factor the most, and I also like building tech items.” Students who have joined the course will learn to code Lego robots that they have built themselves. The projects and knowledge gained from this club could be beneficial when students participate in science fairs which may lead them to bigger tournaments such as Broadcom MASTERS in middle school or ISEF in high school. It can additionally grow their interests in engineering fields, such as mechanical engineering or computer engineering as well as computer science.

Once the projects are completed, students will be able to participate in regional competitions, such as the First Lego League Challenge. This competition “engage in research, problem-solving, coding, and engineering - building and programming a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of a robot game” (First Lego League). Student engineers have been competing since 1998, and this year, the competition will take place virtually. “I am excited about participating in the contest,” said Hangora. “I want to achieve my goal for building my first programmed robot that can function.”