FIRST LEGO League’s Power Puzzle

In my last entry I didn’t really describe what all the kids had to do this year and I should have.
Each year the FIRST LEGO League competition has a theme. Last year the theme was nanotechnology which was a real challenge for fifth graders. But this year’s theme was much easier because issues of power consumption, reduction and alternative energy production are all around us day to day. The kids started out somewhat familiar with the concepts already and it was much easier for them to research and comprehend the problem space.
In addition to move visible aspect of building LEGO robots which compete on a table to manipulate challenges in a proscribed way, the teams also get points in the competition based on judging of the technical merits of their robot mechanism and software designs, judging of an interview on their teamwork skills and judging of a presentation.
The presentation this year had three components: go out in the community and perform an energy audit, analyse the audit data to find ways to reduce energy consumption and adopt alternative energy sources, and finally return to the community building to present the findings and proposals. LEGOtricity audited the headquarters of Medical Teams International here in Tigard. Their primary observations were that the heating of the office space was poorly balanced, the windows and concrete walls and were not sufficiently insulating, their water heating seemed inefficient (old boiler far from usage) and there was a substantial amount of electricity being used for lighting and appliances. MTI in particular was interested in their suggestions for tank-less water heaters and removing one of three tubes in the flourescent light installations throughout their cubicles. The team also researched solar power, but found MTI would need something like a $4million installation of panels (which they did calculate could fit on MTI’s roof). The bummer is that MTI is a non-profit so they don’t pay taxes and can’t take advantage of the massive solar incentives available today.
To that end I really want to thank Dan Crowell (Excalibur Solar, LLC) for answering the kids questions about solar electric. After going to the NW Solar Expo earlier this year, I’ve been thinking seriously of trying to get a photovoltaic installation on my roof and need to give him a call so see about spec’ing something out. I greatly appreciate his willingness to interact with some kids in his local (Tigard/Portland/Oregon) community to help them learn.