I have embarked on a new project that is not related to photography whatsoever. I am Coaching a First Lego League Team this year.
What is First Lego League you ask? It’s a robotics program for kids ages 9 to 14, which was created to get kids excited about science and technology. And to teach them valuable employment and life skills while having fun.
First Lego League is actual just one of the program created by USFirst.org First was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen. Their mission was to inspire our youth to be leaders in science and technology. I first learned about US First when I attended an Orientation Program this summer about a Mobile Robotics Lab for homeschoolers from SMaRT Education.
A few years ago I decided to be really daring and school my son at home. My goal was to develop a love of learning in my son. Something that just was not happening in the public school system. We were about to embark on our 3rd year of schooling and was looking for something that would truly get him interested in learning.
And my son loves Legos so when I heard about the Mobile Robotics Lab I thought this would be perfect. Little did I know at the time that I would be volunteering my time and my home to actually start a Lego League. But now that we’re getting involved, I’m getting really excited. Finally I will have something truly fun to enjoy with my son.
This was important to me because while my daughter was growing up (she is 10 years older than my son) I volunteered for 9 years in Girl Scouts while my daughter was involved. We had many adventures together and I was hoping to do Boy Scouts with my son. I tried that but was not happy with the troops in our area at all. I won’t get into all the details here.
So far we have 9 kids on our team and we’ve had 3 meetings so far. One of our first goals was to create a name for our team. We live in the desert so that had to be a part of our name. And then we looked to robotic terms for more inspiration. Everyone seemed to like the term “grippers”. And the Lego Robot we will be using in team competitions is called Mindstorm. So know we will be known as the Desert Mindstorm Grippers.
Our next task was to develop a logo to represent our team. This is where my skills as a small business owner and photographer came in handy. I asked all the kids to come up with some ideas for a logo. I too embarked on a creative process to come up with a few ideas. We put all of our ideas together and this is our new logo:
I am quite proud of my team for working together to come up with an awesome logo. I can’t wait to see it on our team shirts and banner at our first competition in November. Look out LEGOLAND, the Desert Mindstorm Grippers are on their way!
So now my son and I will have our Lego adventures to look back on someday.
Speaking of adventures, if you’d like to keep up on what’s happening, the Desert Mindstorm Grippers have their own blog. Check it out!