FARMINGTON – A local LEGO League team is looking to build on past success with a strong performance at next month’s statewide championship, having developed a stove with special safety features.
The eight-member team “Cooktop Hero” brings a number of savvy veterans to the LEGO League challenge. Combining a variety of disciplines, including brainstorming, research, public speaking and problem solving, the challenge has been a favorite of students in Franklin County for the past decade. Each year, students must make a presentation before three judges on a project they’ve researched and developed, then utilize kits provided by the LEGO Group to create a robot which completes tasks on an obstacle course. Both the course and project are based on a theme, which every LEGO League team across the country uses as a prompt.
This year’s theme is “Senior Solutions,” with teams being asked to come up with ways to improve the lives of older citizens. The team developed their “Spectacular Senior Safety Stove” by modifying a camp stove to include new safety features. The stove is equipped with safety switches which must be engaged, by placing a pot or kettle on top of a burner, in order for the stove to function. Additionally, students explained, the burners are equipped with timers which can be set to automatically turn off the stove. Team member Zeke Robinson explained that the stove regulated gas flow with a solenoid valve and used a 12-volt car battery to power the safety functions.
“It was really rewarding for us to put a kettle on and watch it work,” team member Alden Thompson Vought said.
The LEGO robot, meanwhile, has been programmed to go through a senior safety-inspired obstacle course and complete thematic tasks, such as picking the correct pill out of a series. Students control the robot by lining up commands in a computer program.
The team will participate in the State Championship at the Augusta Civic Center on Dec. 8, competing with 75 teams from across the state. Team members include Alden Thompson Vought, Zeke Robinson, Zoe Huish, Ben Andrews, James Guillaume, Thomas Marshall, Grace Robinson. The team coaches are Claire Andrews, Alex Claviere, Mike Guerrette and the team’s “senior mentor” Wendy Huish.
Great idea! Good luck at the State Championship!
This is wonderful – it’s great to see kids being inventive and creative. My great aunt could have used this stove, before she went into assisted living she burned just about every pan in the house…
Best of luck!!!
John Caloway
What a great project. My 96 year old mother may have been able to remain independent a little while longer.had she had such a stove. You kids are outstanding. Thank you. JC
Good luck!
I’m so excited for the Competition!!!!!!!!!!
I know the project has a focus on the elderly, but the kids might want to mention that this would also be very helpful for the blind. I’ll never forget seeing an Extreme Makeover show in which a blind woman had burns on her arms from reaching over hot burners. They gave her an electric stove with similar properties.
Good luck in the competition!
What a wonderful and timely project…Good luck with the championship! Looks like a winning idea to me.
Janice Daku, WMCA Keeping Seniors Home Program Manager
How Em and I miss all of you. Best of luck with this fabulous idea!!
How impressive! Good luck Team “Cooktop Hero”!