Courtesy photo
(Pictured l-r:) Kevin Ross of FIRST WA, Brian Alvarez, Zach Lovett, Coach Heidi Lovett (back), Peter Gan, Don Alvarez (mentor/coach), Mercury Herlan (peeking out from the back), Andrew Franklin, Jean Yabroff (asst. coach). (Front:) Joshua Graves, Renee Nicholas, Tyler Phillips, Alaric Sawade.

Contrary to their name, the Gothic Lawn Gnomes are not a punk rock group, nor are they little people who dress in medieval clothing and inhabit Middle Earth. They are a group of 10 local home-schooled kids, nine boys and one girl (Brian Alvarez, Andrew Franklin, Peter Gan, Joshua Graves, Mercury Herlan, Robbie Lee, Zach Lovett, Renee Nicholas, Tyler Phillips and Alaric Sawade), ages 10 to 14, who came together last summer to form a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team.

The FIRST LEGO League is an international organization that encourages teams of students to use math, science and technology to solve real-world problems. Participants in this program design, build and program a robot, using LEGO Robotics, to accomplish several “missions.”

Students also do research on nanotechnology and present new ideas that could impact society in areas such as medicine and the environment. Teams compete against one another at the regional, state and international levels.

The Gothic Lawn Gnomes, a rookie team, went to the FLL regional event, with the initial goal of having fun. They were invited to compete at the state tournament after receiving a “Wild Card” award. At the state competition, the group surprised many veteran teams with a first place win.

The students’ next adventure will be to represent Washington at the FIRST LEGO League Nano Quest World Festival in Atlanta, Ga., in April. They will be competing against 103 teams from 37 countries during the two and a half-day tournament.

“It’s very exciting for the kids and for all of us who have been involved with the team,” says Heidi Lovett, head coach of the Gothic Lawn Gnomes. “Being named state champions was an unexpected surprise, as we never thought we’d go that far.”

Lovett helped organize the team after hearing about FLL. Her eldest son, Zach, has always loved LEGO and has been interested in science and engineering since he was very young. The program seemed to be an ideal fit for him, as well as offer him a good challenge. Lovett spread the word about FLL among several parents she knew, many who were members of the Teaching Parents Association, and soon she assembled an eager and enthusiastic group of students.

She then found two mentors, Dan Parker, a professional LEGO builder, and Don Alvarez, a computer programmer and parent of one of the kids on the team, to help work with the students. They began meeting in early August to discuss the research part of their project, which dealt with the field of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is a new scientific frontier that experts predict will impact many facets of society, such as computers, medicine and the environment.

The nano world is described as being 100,000 times smaller than the thickness of a single strand of hair. At the nano level, everything jumps and shakes, as atoms and molecules are constantly moving and vibrating.

Nanotechnologists manipulate these atoms and molecules to make fascinating discoveries. Scientists believe that in the future, this technology will allow people to cure diseases using devices small enough to travel through the human body.

The team needed to explore a current or potential application of nanotechnology and either improve upon the existing technology or choose a possible application that faces a challenge and solve it.

“After many searches and false starts, the kids decided they wanted to look into affordable nanotech,” explains Lovett. “They ended up coming up with a concept for a product they named, ‘NANO Clean,’ which is a chewing gum that will clean your teeth while you chew the gum. It is intended to help those who do not have access to affordable dental care. The kids presented their research project in the form of an infomercial, which they wrote and performed for the judges. It was very entertaining and clever.”

Another part of the competition involved the construction of a robot, which could complete various prescribed missions, set by the FLL, within a certain time period. These tasks, according to Brian Alvarez, a member of the Gothic Lawn Gnomes, ranged in the level of difficulty.

The young teen from Woodinville says, “We had to, for example, get our robot to drop a LEGO piece into a square to activate a motor or get it to flip a lever to activate a self-aligning molecule. There were actually nine tasks and our goal was to see if our robot could accomplish all nine missions in 150 seconds. Our robot completed an average of seven missions during competition.”

Teams were also judged on their oral presentation regarding the construction and programming of their robots, as well as on their teamwork abilities.

“We scored very high on teamwork,” adds Brian. “The judges walked around and watched and listened to us while we worked on the project to see how well we worked together and I guess they liked what they saw. They also really liked our research presentation on our chewing gum idea.”

For Brian, the biggest challenge in the project was the size of the group and the fact that the team was forced to use only one mat and one robot. In order to work effectively and efficiently, the team had to divide into smaller groups and work on individual tasks before coming together. He comments: “I think teamwork is really important with a project like this, plus it’s also necessary to be able to think outside the box.”

Lovett echoes Brian’s thoughts and adds, “The biggest challenge with this group was learning to be a team and to work together. Most of the kids are first-born, independent thinkers who are not used to having to work together with a bunch of other people who are just as stubborn as they are. It has been both challenging and fun to watch them figure this out. They have had to learn about trusting one another.”

For each of the competitions, teams use the same project, however, they are allowed to re-work their robots for optimal performance. In the upcoming weeks and months before the World Festival, the Gothic Lawn Gnomes will continue to meet several times a week to go over their presentations and to tweak their robot.

“I know our robot can do better,” comments 10-year-old Tyler Phillips of Maltby. “This was our weakest area in the competition. We are working on improving our robot so it will have more sensors, to be able to verify its position more accurately.” Tyler is very excited about going to Atlanta and adds, “It’s going to be fun and I hope we do really well. We have a great team and we’ve worked really hard.”

Lovett believes the project has given all the kids some important life skills. She says they have learned how to do research, how to think like scientists and engineers, how to work as a team and also how to present themselves in a professional manner. “I’ve also seen many of the more shy kids come out of the shadows,” comments Lovett. “They all seem to have gained some confidence. Most importantly, they have had a lot of fun!”

The Gothic Lawn Gnomes need to raise approximately $25,000 to cover their travel expenses to Atlanta. If you would like to encourage, support or get more information on the team or the FIRST LEGO League program, visit: www.gothiclawngnomes.org.