By Cindy Ziervogel

Playing with LEGOs is grown up stuff for a group of kids from Sartartia Middle who have been designing, building and programming robots after school. In fact, a team of 10 students from the school ’s newly formed Science and Robotics Club, a mix of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, recently came in second place at the First LEGO League qualifying tournament sponsored by The Science, Technology, Aerospace and Robotics Society (STARS) of Cypress .

The team’s high ranking at the Cypress Springs High School competition in November was no surprise to Ian MacIntyre, sponsor of the club.

“It’s been interesting watching the kids problem solve,” said MacIntyre. “My expectation was that they would do well. And they did. What really amazed me was how well they were able to get along with each other. They ’re middle school kids, after all.”

MacIntyre, also a science teacher and football coach, decided to start the club this year after a student told him about his experience building robots in another, off-campus robotics club last summer.

“I thought I’d have about 10 kids sign up for the club, but I have more than 50 kids just from the start of the school year. There was definitely a need for this. ”

But the real challenge was not how to guide these eager and bright students, it was how they were going to get the money for LEGO robot kits, which cost about $400 each, according to MacIntyre. Fundraising was an

Shortly after the club began, three teams of 10 students each were formed to compete in the First LEGO League qualifying tournament. During the contest, the competitors presented their programmed robot by placing it on a 4-foot by 8-foot playing field. At the countdown of 3, 2, 1 LEGO, the robots were released to autonomously navigate through a series of tasks that lasted two and a half minutes.

The benefits to entering the robot building competition are many according to First LEGO League. Young students get to apply real world math and science concepts and research challenges facing today ’s scientists. They learn critical thinking, team building and presentation skills.

The Sartartia team that took second place will move on to the next round in Pearland in February, to a much stiffer competition according to MacIntyre. The teams earn points from a task list so more sophisticated maneuvers will be needed at each level of competition.

Every team needs a leader, and Kieran Smith thinks he has what it takes, at least for next year anyway. The sixth-grader is really just thinking ahead to when he ’s a seventh-grader and hopes to stay in the club if he has the time.

“I would be a good leader. I’d get to learn leadership skills. It would be cool.”

Nithin Kakulavaram, a sixth-grader and acting team captain at

“At the tournament we looked at the other robots and saw what missions they could do. We ’re ready to program new missions for the next competition.”

Also scoping out the other teams was sixth-grader Kalpana Vaidya. Kalpana hopes to be a business person someday and, like any successful business person, she watches what her competition is up to.

“Now that we’ve seen what the others have done, we’ll do other missions and try to make ours look cooler.”

Besides Kieran, Nithin and Kalpana, seven other robot enthusiasts make up the Sartartia team. The other members are Poonam Vaidya, Alex Luong, Claire Wood, Elaine Wood, Viren Joopelli, Sharat Kalaga and Russel Kan.

The First LEGO League introduces young students, grades 4-8, to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. The students design, build and program their robots using LEGO Mindstorms technology.

According to the First LEGO League Web site, their projection for this year is that more than 14,000 teams from 50 countries will compete. It is expected there will be 475 qualifying events and 89 championship tournaments. The LEGO League World Festival will be held in Atlanta in April. l