Students tackle hydro issues at Lego robotics event

Hundreds of young students—ages 9 – 14—gathered Saturday morning, bright and early, robots and projects in hand for the big day.

For weeks, 25 FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams from North Bay and surrounding areas have been preparing for the big competition, when their meticulously planned and built robots would participate in a series of missions, hoping to get the top score.

“Today all these teams have gotten together to celebrate what they’ve spent the past three months working up to,” Tournament Director Heath Kelso said, motioning to the teams of students enthusiastically exchanging their findings at Chippewa Secondary School. “There are three components to today: one is having autonomous robots complete missions for points; the second part is a project where they have a problem, do some research, find a solution, and present it to others to help make a change; and the third is core values and good morals we’re helping the kids learn.”

However, each year has a different theme—this year being hydrodynamics. Kelso said some groups found problems with grey water, wastewater treatment plants, and many more.

North Bay city council already had the opportunity to see one of the projects when members of Team 18925 talked about their ‘Fitbit’ for the water meter end of November.  

But one team on Saturday—3Bs—presented their findings on grey water.

“We’ve made a greywater reuse system to flush toilets and it can use any source of grey water,” Rory and Katelyn said, two of the six members of the all-girls team. “These sources include dishwasher, bath, shower, washing machine, sump pump and rain barrels and you can use any of them.”

They explained how grey water is reusable water from anyplace in your home, although some areas consider kitchen water as black water—non-reusable water.

“We thought of places that used a lot of water and thought of the toilet,” Rory said. “And we thought the washer machine might use a lot, but after a survey, we found that Katelyn’s was the only washer machine that actually produced enough water to flush a toilet.”

And all day these teams were overflowing with enthusiasm and teamwork, excited to share their work, display their robots, and engage in friendly competition during the third Annual North Bay FLL Qualifying Tournament.