These Niles kids know their robotics

Published 12:33 am Thursday, April 19, 2007

By By KATHIE HEMPEL / Niles Daily Star
NILES – First place was almost theirs.
Access 9, the robotics team from Niles, won second place in the international competition at the FIRST Championships in Atlanta, Ga.
All the students involved with the team are home-schooled. They have used their interest in building robots and the travel to the competition as active learning opportunities.
FIRST represents "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." The Niles team faced competition from teams from schools and other groups from all over the world.
Ninety-four teams from 22 countries gathered to participate in the two and one-half day tournament. The gathering was designed to challenge the children to explore a new frontier that impacts every facet of society from medicine to computers to the environment.
"We were told that we lost by a fraction and that it was so close some judges actually pulled out as they thought it was too close to call. We also won second place in the Alliance Competition, where our team had to cooperate with teams from Germany, Japan and Delaware in performing the assigned tasks," Team Coach Laurie Fritts said.
"The kids loved the Alliance competition. In the pit area at the Georgia World Congressional Center, their display formed a block with the other teams that formed their alliance so they got to know one another pretty well," Margo Miller, mother of three of the team members said.
Teams from the various countries exchanged small gifts. The pit area also gave teams an opportunity to meet and explain their research.
"Japan's team had a 16-year-old translator and a coach that spoke a bit of English. Our kids understood the German teams' English well enough to mediate between the Germans and the Japanese," Miller said.
She said during the Alliance Competition each team had to complete 2 of 8 assigned missions for the alliance to win. Surprisingly, the international competition was not the end of the adventure for the two families from Niles, two from South Bend and one from Cassopolis. Following their return home to Michiana Sunday from Georgia, they received a call from tournament organizers. They had been trying to reach them for two days.
"They told us that someone from Washington, D.C., had called to request teams representing the three categories of robotics attend a congressional reception. They were also to go to the Press Club to perform with their robots. Our team had been chosen to represent their FIRST LEGO category of robot, in Washington on April 29th," Miller said. Now, the team which raised the money to attend the world festival in Atlanta in three months, has only 10 days to raise the estimated $6,000 for the trip to Washington. The parents and the 10-member team plan on driving to D.C. and FIRST has reserved a block of rooms at conference rate.
The parent organization does not have funds to assist the families in paying for the trip. FIRST does, however, provide tax receipts to all who donate to the participating families. Anyone interested in helping these local winners go to Washington should call Coach Fritts at 687-0776 or Margo Miller at 683-1474.