At the recent San Diego FIRST LEGO League Robotics competition, the Village Elementary Robotics team took home two awards in their first-ever competition. The team was awarded the Breakthrough Award for new teams, while coach Courtney Sakai was recognized with this year\u2019s Coach\u2019s Award.<\/p>\n
This is Sakai\u2019s second year as an educator at Village Elementary School and first year coaching a competition team alongside the robotics club program there. She comes from a background in teaching special education at the elementary school level and had previously been engaged with a robotics program before coming to Coronado.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been teaching for a long time, about 15 years. I\u2019ve found that when you present Legos together with coding, and all of this technology, to kids who maybe struggle in other areas, this really comes naturally to them,\u201d Sakai said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that there was robotics at the middle school and high school, and wondered why it was missing at the elementary school, so I asked the District if we could bring robotics to the elementary school. They were amazing. They went out and presented it to a bunch of people and donated us a grant that got us equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year and this year, Sakai has led the introduction of the program at Village, where she\u2019s focused on teaching students the basic concepts involved with robotics. \u201cWe do five-week sessions of just club where kids come and learn from the very beginning,\u201d she explained. \u201cEach session is about ten kids, and they rotate. They have five weeks to explore and learn how to build and how to code, and I go through the [FIRST LEGO League] Core Values with them, and then the next group comes in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI let them experiment and be creative with how they use everything on a robot,\u201d she added. \u201cWhat\u2019s nice is that, because they\u2019ve never built a robot before or used all of those different parts, they\u2019re really eager to use everything. And it\u2019s cool to watch them play around with the coding and build whatever robots they think up, and just have a really fun time letting it spin around the room. So we have those groups cycling throughout the entire year.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the program\u2019s success last year and excitement surrounding it from the students, Sakai was confident they could start a competition team this year in addition to the larger club program. As a coach, she brings her skills and past experience with teaching to lead the students and help them develop as individuals and as a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy team this year was fully inclusive \u2013 with eight students from all backgrounds, students with disabilities, students without disabilities \u2013 of fourth and fifth graders. It really allowed me to give kids an outlet to explore other skillsets that they wouldn\u2019t necessarily have an opportunity to do so otherwise,\u201d Sakai noted. \u201cThey were great and worked together so well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey kind of partnered up within the team to take on different aspects [of the competition]. Two or three kids would work on one thing together, and another two kids would work on something else together, so they were able to really find little pockets within what they were doing and come together as a unified team.\u201d<\/p>\n
FIRST Lego League (FLL) is open for fourth through eighth graders to compete in, and Sakai mentioned that the team was a little intimidated at first at the prospect of competing with middle schoolers. \u201cThere\u2019s the height difference, and just by looking, they seem so much older, but it\u2019s really cool to watch how age does not matter,\u201d she told me. \u201cI had one of my students actually say, \u2018They might be older, but younger kids have an advantage because they have bigger imaginations.\u2019 There\u2019s no limitation in your imagination when it comes to things like the project, or getting really creative on how to go about the [game] board because they just think so broadly and that really is to their benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of the larger Coronado Robotics program for the Coronado Unified School District, the Coronado Middle School Robotics teams have stepped in to mentor the elementary school students and show them the ropes. \u201cWatching the inclusion of all of the Robotics teams with these middle schoolers wanting to help this team grow has been really cool,\u201d Sakai said of the collaboration and inclusivity amongst all of the teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to go to the competition with the other middle school teams and see what they did and learn from them. The kids on my team just naturally gravitated towards those older [Coronado Robotics] kids \u2013 even the high school teams. The high schoolers were great at prepping the kids for their presentations,\u201d she mentioned. \u201cJust exposing them to the next level of competition where the robots are very different and seeing these kids get so excited about what they could be doing four years from now, and watching that drive happen, where they\u2019re saying, \u2018I want to do that. I want to build the big ones and be 3-D printing things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
As a first-year competition team, Sakai said her main expectation for the team was mostly to go and gain that experience. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time our kids have ever seen this, and I just wanted them to go in and have a good time \u2013 no stress, no tears, no panic, just enjoy it,\u201d she commented. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect any sort of awards\u2026and they came out with the Breakthrough Award, which is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
FLL competitions include two main elements. The first is the presentation of their project \u2013 a robotics solution they design to address a problem that goes with the FLL theme that year \u2013 and the game board in which the Lego robotics they create and code can score points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fun to watch them present,\u201d Sakai said. \u201cThey\u2019ve never experienced that, and they didn\u2019t know what to expect. I can\u2019t help them once they\u2019re in the judging room. It was great to just see them use skills that we worked on with public speaking and how to have a conversation with those judges. I watched them pull out all of the information they knew and be professional. They don\u2019t get to practice that every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
While coaches can\u2019t help their teams during competitions, with their project presentations or their runs on the board, Sakai said the team was excited and animated while presenting, and eager to share their knowledge and answer the judges\u2019 questions. \u201cThe Breakthrough Award was all about the most progress. The team out of the new teams that showed the most potential,\u201d she continued. \u201cTo know that the judges saw what I see in them was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teams also get a chance to talk with the judges about their coaches at the end of their presentations. Sakai left the room for that portion and doesn\u2019t know what they said, and was blown away when she found out she had won the Coach\u2019s Award. \u201cTo get to share that award with [the team], getting the Breakthrough Award, we were so excited. We got to celebrate together, and for the parents to watch the hard work that these kids put in, they were so proud of their kids.<\/p>\n
As Sakai sees it, robotics and the sort of recognition her team earned at the competition can be incredibly impactful for the students. \u201cBeing a full inclusion team with kids with disabilities, things can be harder for them; it\u2019s a struggle, and this award really helped them recognize, \u2018Wow. I did something I can be proud of, and I was successful. Maybe I\u2019m not the best reader or speller, or I\u2019m not great at math in class.\u2019 But being able to walk away and say, \u2018I am good at this, and I can do this,\u2019 really boosted their confidence. That was something I was so excited to share with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to provide robotics to these kids and give them an opportunity, I don\u2019t need an award, necessarily, to know that this is what they needed,\u201d Sakai added. \u201cThe fact that I could bring that joy, my joy and my passion, to them and they could convey that joy and that passion? I think this is one of those core memories these kids are going to walk away with and have with them forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a huge honor for me to have been recognized in that way. I know the time, and the effort, and the dedication it takes to be a coach. So for those judges to recognize that with our team, and with how new our team is, it was a huge honor to be able to have that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sakai said it\u2019s the everyday celebrations that are her favorite part about coaching robotics for the club and the team. \u201cThose little celebrations when they\u2019re working really hard on trying to accomplish a mission, and it\u2019s not working, it\u2019s not working, until suddenly something clicks. They change the code, they figure it out, and they make it work, and just watching them light up in that moment because they\u2019re so proud of themselves,\u201d she described. \u201cIt\u2019s a big deal. They get so excited and are high-fiving each other and are so proud of accomplishing something they\u2019ve worked really hard on together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teaching and coaching at the elementary school level, Sakai also focuses on the importance of teaching them how to be independent and self-aware. \u201cIt\u2019s about gauging where they\u2019re at. It\u2019s about teaching them that failure is okay and helping them understand when they need to take a break,\u201d she explained. \u201cIt\u2019s building their independence, especially within a team. So when we\u2019re working together, and someone needs to take a break, how does somebody else jump in, and how do we approach that and problem solve?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sakai helps the students talk through those challenges with group meetings at the start of every session. \u201cWe fill out a sheet where we say, \u2018Who\u2019s here today? What\u2019s our goal for the day? What\u2019s everybody\u2019s team responsibilities?\u2019 We come up with an overarching goal, and whatever it is, everybody writes down on their own what they are personally going to be responsible for.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the meeting, we sit down and talk about it. Did you meet your goal? Did you encounter problems? How did you solve them? Or did things come up that you felt you really struggled with, that you need help with? Then I let the team answer each other. One student might say, \u2018I really had a hard time finishing this mission, and I got frustrated.\u2019 And then I let the other kids say how they could maybe help them, or how they would solve that problem, rather than me telling them what to do. This is all about them as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the program Sakai has seen how learning these and the skills it takes to build, code, research, and present has helped students build their self-confidence. That confidence follows them outside of the Robotics classroom to their other classes and areas of their lives, as well. \u201cWatching these kids find an outlet to express themselves is amazing,\u201d Sakai told me. \u201cThey\u2019re finding something that, maybe, this is going to be their path as adults. Maybe they\u2019re going to go into STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), and getting exposed to that very, very early on is a great opportunity for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext year I\u2019m hoping to expand to be able to bring in more kids who are excited, form more teams, and make it even more public for the school,\u201d she added. \u201cI think everyone is excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n