Muscatine robotics expo encourages interest in STEM – Muscatine Journal

MUSCATINE Members of team Awesome Lego Builders stood around their project, waiting for other children and adults who walked around Muscatine Community College's student center to stop by.

When a few curious children stopped by, the team began their presentation and demonstrating their projecta motorized Lego spider about as big as their hands which moved on a field with animals, a miniature naturalist and a beehive that released a minuscule barrel of honey at the press of a button.

Joey Murphy, 9, explained why the team focused on spiders.

We thought they were interesting, he said, adding they remind him of Spiderman.

It took six weeks to design and build the project, which asked them to pick an animal that lives in the same habitat as a honey bee, and create a model and a poster about it.

The poster included a list of deadly spiders and other facts.

On Wednesday afternoon, team Awesome Lego Builders and six other Muscatine robotics teams presented their work at the FIRST Lego League Jr. Expo, the first expo of its kind for Muscatine.

Krista Regennitter, Muscatine County ISU Extension director, said there was a smaller gathering last year, but it did not rise to the level of an expo. Growing interest about robotics prompted them to host the bigger event.

The teams showed their projects to friends and families and volunteer reviewers.

(The reviewers) talk to them about what they learned and then they will look at the model and the poster and then every team will get an area of excellence (recognition), Regennitter said.

The teams are part of Clover Kids, 4-H groups that attract children from kindergarten to third grade.

The expo is kind of like the county fair for regular 4-Hers, she said. Its an opportunity to talk to a judge or a reviewer and say this is what I learned.

It also promotes creativity, science and engineering.

The neat thing is that it introduces STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) with Lego, which everybody loves, she said.

For team Awesome Lego Builders, science figured into several stages of the design and creation of the spider model.

Liesie Poppe 9, said it took several attempts to create the Lego tree on which the spider rested. Inside the tree, they buried a battery. On first try, the tree they built wasnt big enough to hide the battery completely.

We just kept building it up, she said.

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Muscatine robotics expo encourages interest in STEM - Muscatine Journal