Courtesy photo
Gothic Lawn Gnomes and their coaches: (Front, from left) Joshua Graves, Alaric Sawade, Adriane Gan, David Lovett, Sam Davids; (Back from left) Zach Lovett, Heidi Lovett (coach), Mercury Herlan, Jean Yabroff (asst. coach), and Andrew Franklin.

The Gothic Lawn Gnomes, the team of local wiz kids who compete in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL), a science and engineering program that uses LEGO Mindstorms Robotics, are in the news once again.

Last year, the group of Eastside homeschoolers from Woodinville, Redmond, Bellevue, Snohomish and Sammamish, won the FLL State Championship and went on to represent Washington at the World Festival in Atlanta, Georgia.

The team shined at the event and earned a “Gracious Professionalism” Honorable Mention, which was awarded by their peers.

This season, the Gnomes got a Judges Special Award at the state competition and were selected to participate once again at the upcoming world event in April.

In addition to preparing for the various meets, the Gnomes have also been busy raising money to help support the only known FLL team in Afghanistan, the Kite Runners.

“We basically adopted this team,” explains Gnomes coach Heidi Lovett. “At the state meet last year, we heard about them and learned that they desperately needed equipment. Our kids stepped up to help them out and did a lot of fundraising, which allowed them to pay for the Kite Runners’ registration and to send them the NXT robotics kit and field set up for this year’s challenge. They really rose to the occasion and were the only team to do so.”

The two teams met via webcam at the state competition in December and now the Gnomes are trying to raise more money to help bring the Kite Runners to the world event.

In addition, this dynamic group of kids is sponsoring a Junior FLL team called the “Mini Gnomes” and has also started a fund to help future WA state champions attend the World Festival. They have made a generous donation to the fund and are now challenging other FLL teams to contribute to the effort.

“The kids are trying to raise awareness of FLL by getting out in the community and talking about the program,” adds Lovett. “They have been to various events at the library and at the local malls to hand out information about the program and to help kids build with LEGO.”

Lovett praises FLL and says that it is an exciting and fun international robotics program that really ignites enthusiasm for discovery, science and technology in kids ages nine to fourteen. She explains that FLL is the result of a partnership between FIRST and the LEGO Group that was formed in 1998.

Thus far, the organization has reached more than 90,000 kids in 45 countries around the globe.

“FLL has given me a chance to work with others who share the same interests as me,” comments Gothic Lawn Gnomes member Mercury Herlan. “I like the challenges it provides because it pushes me to think outside the box.”

Fellow team member David Lovett agrees and adds, “I’ve made a lot of new friends through FLL and I’ve also learned a lot in the process. Working with robots is really fun and I enjoy it because it’s physical and hands-on.”

Each year, the FLL challenges teams of students to tackle a real world problem, such as nanotechnology or alternative energy, through the competition. Teams, guided and assisted by a coach and mentors, build and program robots to autonomously complete multiple missions on the game field, which contains LEGO models representing aspects of that year’s challenge. The students must also do a research project related to the challenge topic and present their ideas to the judges in a compelling format.

Teams are evaluated on their teamwork, project presentation, robot design and robot performance.

This season, the challenge is “Power Puzzle. What are our energy resources and how do we meet the global demand?” As part of this challenge, teams were asked to perform an energy audit on a building in their community.

The Kite Runners chose to use an average Afghani family’s home. They found that the family didn’t have any insulation in the house nor did they have a power inverter for lights. The team not only gave ideas for improvements, but they also helped the family to insulate, as well as install the power inverter that was needed.

The Gnomes chose to do their audit on Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream in Maltby. They found that even though this is an environmentally-friendly business, there’s still room for improvement when it comes to energy efficiency. They were able to make some concrete suggestions to the owner, which he really appreciated.

But, they also went a step further. “In the process of doing research,” says Lovett, “the kids discovered information about plasma conversion, a process that uses waste material to provide energy and other usable materials. It’s a technology that cleans up the environment and reduces waste. Actually, my son Zach was the one who first read about it in “Popular Science” and it tweaked his interest.”

Zach explains further: “It’s a novel way to take previously unusable materials and turn them into usable materials and a source of clean energy. The process uses a plasma convertor, which is about the size of a two-car garage. It has a plasma arc torch that heats up the waste, which has already been grinded and shredded down. Then it separates the chemical bonds into solids and gases, which can be filtered out to produce power from the molecules and other usable materials. It’s a way to clean up the trash and produce viable fuels at the same time.”

The Gnomes went to Woodinville’s City Planner and spoke to him about their research. They also did a presentation to the Brightwater staff and soon they will be meeting with King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert to discuss the possibility of partnering with her as they proceed to petition the county to get a plasma converter installed.

“Our first thought was to locate it at Brightwater so as to turn it into an energy hub, rather than a simple waste water treatment plant,” says Lovett. “People we’ve been talking to are very interested and excited about the possibilities. We’ll see what happens.” She adds, “I’m very proud of these kids, as they are taking initiative to improve life for those around them and to help bring a brighter, healthier future to our world. They are helping to spread the message that science and technology are fun and that even children can make an impact in their world.”