4-H Club Machine Magicians Win 2nd Place!
Dallas County Machine Magicians 4-H competed in the State First Lego League tournament held at Iowa State University January 14th.
The club won 2nd place for their Project Innovative Solution.
The competition consisted of 60 teams of 9- to 14- year olds that have advanced from regional competitions from around Iowa. They also competed in the Global Innovation Award presentations.
FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an international program, created by FIRST® and LEGO® , designed to get children interested in and excited about science, technology and engineering. This year’s theme was hydrodynamics. Teams each had to identify a water problem, research it, design a solution and share their ideas with competition judges. The teams were also evaluated on their LEGO robot’s performance and design, a research presentation and team interviews on design and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) core values.
Their project is called Stop Drop, it is an app that connects with a flow meter device placed on waterlines throughout your house. The app shows how much water you are using right to your smart phone. It also has a mini game with water conservation facts. It’s main application is for household use to monitor usage or leaky toilets/pipes. Another use is monitoring filling water tanks in an agricultural setting.
“The kids got the idea for the project from all the fitness trackers out there that track your steps, this tracks your water usage. The more you know the more you can do! ” said Rebecca Smith the club leader.
The Magician Magicians team consist of 9 youth from the Adel area. They have been practicing for 4 months to prepare for competition.
Front Row: Bryson Smith, Sydney Kuhse, Addison Kuonen, Owen Embree and Kaylin Dains Middle Row: Tate Hook, Brady Gustafson, Sam Peters, Tom Hook Back Row: Cliff and Rebecca Smith
Dallas County ISU Extension Office
28059 Fairground Road
Adel, Iowa 50003
Phone: (515) 993-4281
Fax: (515) 993-1027
Website: www.extension.iastate.edu/dallas
Facebook: ISUExtensionDallasCounty
