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Elementary school students took on unique challenge for Lego robotics competition

San Diego Union-Tribune - 12/7/2019

As students on a Lego robotics team at Kelly Elementary School considered a project for their upcoming competition, their thoughts turned to classmates with disabilities. What if they could design a more accessible playground that they could all play in?

Their teammate Bailey Benton has Down's Syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy, which makes it hard for her to use standard playground equipment. That's frustrating to her, and to friends who want her to join them in the school yard.

"What if Bradley really wants to play with Bailey, but he wants to get on the monkey bars, and she can't get up there?" asked team member Olivia Johnson, referring to her teammate Bradley Lyon. "We'd really like it to not be limited at all, so we can play with all our friends."

The team decided to tackle that problem as they prepared for competitions for the First Lego League, offered by the nonprofit FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.) The Kelly fourth-graders are one of two teams in the school who passed a qualifying event, and will go onto the Southern California Regional Championship at Legoland Sunday.

First Lego League aims to foster well-rounded young scientists "through theme-based challenges in research, problem solving, coding, and engineering,." according to its website. In addition to robotics construction and programming, the league requires team members to articulate their core values, work collaboratively, and develop a project that addresses each year's theme.

This year that revolves around sustainable cities, so students were tasked with identifying a problem and developing a proposed solution. The team debated whether to work on the issue of inclusion or on the concept of collaborative motion, in which one person generates electricity that powers another device.

"We said, okay we can't decide, so let's smush them together and make an accessible park that also generates power," said Moorea Marchi, 9, a team member whose parents are the team coaches.

They designed a play structure that features energy harvesting equipment with side-by-side swings, including one conventional swing and another that's disabled accessible.

"Let's say Bailey and I want to swing together," Moorea said. "I can secure her in her ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) swing, and I can swing next to her and generate electricity."

They came up with the team name "CoMo FUNerators" to describe that vision, after considering and rejecting other monikers including terms such as collaborative motion, fun, electricity and Jedis.

"There's no more Jedis," team member Alana Gomes acknowledged.

Then they set about researching and developing the idea, while they also built a Lego robot and wrote code to control its functions. They found other examples of collaborative motion play equipment, and learned of a group of Girl Scouts who designed an accessible park.

The fourth-graders interviewed engineers and public officials with Carlsbad Parks and Recreation, local playground design company Pacific Play and contractors who will be modernizing their campus under the Carlsbad Unified's Measure HH. They floated their idea with Carlsbad Unified School District Superintendent Ben Churchill, and hope the district will include the adaptive swing when it begins construction under the school bond measure, approved by voters last year.

Kelly Elementary School is a hub for the district's special education classes, so general education students at the school interact daily with their special education classmates. It poses logistical challenges for activities such as playground use, but families say students have found ways to adapt.

"A lot of kids bonded with kids with disabilities, and they help them every day," team member Emery Cramond said.

That wasn't always the case, parents said. Years ago, the two programs operated side by side, but separately. Then the campus started a "kindness club," in which general education students help out in special education classes, or join their classmates at lunch.

"It has changed the school so much," said Nicole Buchanan, Moorea's mom and the director of the after-school robotics program. "Kids in wheelchairs are being pushed around by their friends who want to play with them on the playground. It's interesting to see these friendships form."

Members of the CoMo FUNerators asked Bailey to join their team, and another group at Kelly also has a member with Down's Syndrome, Buchanan said. Last week, students practiced for the event at Legoland, rehearsing their presentations and doing trial runs of the "missions" that their robot must complete. One of its tasks is rolling toward a Lego replica of an disabled access swing and flipping a bar to activate it.

At the Legoland competition, they will compete with teams in fourth through eighth grade, Buchanan said. The older students will have greater experience and more sophisticated robots that can perform multiple missions on one run, giving middle schoolers a competitive advantage. The CoMo FUNerators are confident of their own mission, though.

"I want to start by introducing you to our friend Bailey," Olivia said in the presentation. "Bailey likes music and to clap hands. Bailey doesn't like to be excluded, but at most parks and playgrounds she doesn't have a choice. She is our friend, and we want to be able to play with her at the playground."

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