During February and March of 2007 a team of 5th graders from Leon Springs Elementary School in San Antonio Texas participated in the Gear Robotics contest held at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

My daughter, Ashley was a member of the team and I worked with the students as a mentor. Wendy Brake was the sponsor teacher at the school and did an amazing job getting the kids involved and focusing their efforts.

The LSE team took 2nd place in the overall performance competition and also won the Young Engineers award which recognized the team for essays and notebooks documenting the process followed in designing and testing their robot.

The students were allowed to use a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit as the base for their robot along with a collection of everyday items such as Styrofoam cups, straws, tape, and paper towel roll cores.

Vickrey & Associates, Inc. a San Antonio based civil engineering and consulting firm donated a Lego  Mindstorms NXT kit to the school for this project.  Many thanks to them for the kit, and letting me leave work early many days to go work with the kids.