The Chef Bot-Ardees, a team comprised of five seventh-graders from Charles F. Patton Middle School and one fifth grader from Chadds Ford Elementary School, won the First Place Research Quality Award at Delaware’s FIRST LEGO League State Champion’s Tournament at the Bob Carpenter Center on Jan. 26.
FLL is a world-wide robotics program for 9 to 14 year olds started by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway. FLL’s mission is to get children excited about science, engineering and technology while teaching them valuable employment and life skills. The theme of this year’s competition is “Senior Solutions” and FLL teams build, test and program an autonomous robot to solve a set of missions as well as research, develop and share their innovative solutions to improve the quality of life of Senior Citizens by helping them stay independent, engaged and connected to their community.
The Research Quality Award is presented to the team that best demonstrates the use and understanding of diverse resources used to formulate an in-depth and thorough explanation of the team’s point of view and Senior Solution. The research component to the competition is equal to the robot missions and the Chef Bot-Ardees used their ingenuity and vision to develop an innovative Senior Solution — “The Magne-Tray.” The team researched the connection between mobility, nutrition and overall health in Seniors. They researched common complaints about existing walker trays and created an improved walker tray that is made of sturdier lightweight plastic, has a balanced center of gravity, a deeper magnetized tray, and includes magnetized dishware so food and beverages won’t slip or slide off. With a convenient way to transport food from kitchen to table, Seniors may be more likely to eat, which will improve their nutrition and overall health.
The Chef Bot-Ardees also won the first place Champion’s Trophy at the Delaware State University qualifying tournament on January 19th. The team consists of 7th graders Austin Hwa, CJ McClure, Jonathan Nguyen, KC Simmons and Dev Singh from Charles F. Patton Middle School and 5th grader Thomas McClure from Chadds Ford Elementary School.
