There's No "I" in BulahBots

I recently shared some introductory information about the BulahBots, the FIRST Robotics team from Parkview Baptist School in Baton Rouge, led by Shawn Liner. Now that we have the introduction out of the way and you know a little about their story, I want to drill down and see if there's any educational value to this endeavor. We know that building robots can be challenging, fun, expensive and a nice diversion from school. But, the real question is, "So what?" In other words, what's the takeaway from a program like FIRST Robotics. Let's see what Shawn had to say about the lessons learned by the FIRST Team 3753, the team he's taking to Nationals April 24-28 in St. Louis.

Nathan: Shawn, you're the team leader or sponsor, but who actually was in charge of the whole project? the design? the construction?

Shawn: The students are in charge. I make a point of being the mediator and facilitator, not the boss. In fact this year they went against my initial wishes. I initially had decided that we should focus on the end-game (climbing the pyramid). However, the students debated and decided that run-and-gun approach to the task was a better, and more achievable, game plan.

I've been fortunate that I have a few gear-heads on my team. These guys have rebuilt cars with their dads and know how to use tools. They are in charge of construction, and they're responsible for teaching these skills to our underclassmen. I feel that the real game happens before we go to regional. My team is competing the whole time they are building.

Nathan: How much ownership of the project did the kids have?

Shawn: Actually, as much as possible. I have six non-students on my team: two adult mentors, three college interns and me. While it's been great to have that kind of participation, we work together to prevent one another from taking over. The team belongs to the kids. They design the robot. They build it, invent the name, the logos, the t-shirts, everything. We (the adults) keep them on task, keep them safe, and ask questions. It’s all very Aristotelian.

Nathan: How does the camaraderie of the BulahBots team members compare to what an athletic team or an orchestra might experience?

Shawn: That's difficult to say. Our “season” lasts six weeks plus a regional competition. We do build some great camaraderie, but the short time probably doesn't allow us to approach what can be accomplished in a year-long sport. I can say that we have had some great teamwork and the students have grown closer together. For example, I loved seeing my senior programmer teach my sophomore, and an upperclassman show an underclassman how to build and use tools. However, we still are a young, developing team. We long to resemble the more developed teams (http://team1912.com) that are year-round and more outreach and training based. I believe that when we reach those levels we will see more of that camaraderie.

Nathan: Were there ever disagreements on the team? If so, how were the conflicts resolved? Did the adults intervene or were the team members left to sort things out?

Shawn: This is perhaps my biggest job as a coach.  The truth of engineering is that there's always another way to do anything you set out to do. (Part of the fun of regionals is seeing how the other teams chose to flesh out our discarded ideas). There may be two ways to do it, but what do we have the resources and talent to flesh-out? Therefore, the conflict management is turning the conflicts into debates. I direct the team members' debate.

Nathan: Was there a "light bulb moment" in terms of teamwork and coming together as a team? 

Shawn: One moment that stands out happened immediately after our kick-off presentation during our rookie year. I had half a dozen students who'd never heard of robotics competition staring at me with fear at the thought of trying to get a mini-bot to climb a pole. Nobody (including me) had the slightest clue how we would go about making it happen. We decided that we would have a driveable robot at regional. That was our definition of success and we reached it. Many of these same students are still with me this year, but our goal was much higher. This year’s goal included a much-improved image at competition, and a cleaner robot that we could be proud of. The best moments this year included setting up our pit and getting ready for inspection. We felt like a team.

Nathan: What collaboration/teamwork skills did you see grow or develop during this process?

Shawn: I've often been curious about the dojo style of teaching. In a dojo, the Sensei teaches the blackbelts and then supervises as the blackbelts teach the brown belts who then teach the blue belts, etc. Because of how effective I found this method, I have always wanted to try it in education. I saw it happen here. My senior programmer taught my sophomore and, as a result, learned it more clearly himself. I saw my senior builders help my underclassmen understand how to use the drills. This was a great thing to witness, and I want to see more.

Additionally, I also saw disagreements about how to accomplish our goal get worked out with minimal effort from me. Students had to brainstorm an  idea, and then present it to the team. Unlike our debates in class, the students didn't just wait for the smart kid to answer and then agree with him. They actually had a good debate.

Nathan: If no member of the BulahBots grows up to become a robot-designing engineer, what is the takeaway from the experience for them? What do they get out of this? What’s the point? What's the takeaway?

Shawn: The most obvious goal of  any robotics team is to increase the number of students studying STEM degrees. However, our team has many components that are not directly related to building and engineering. In fact, with our miniature engineering firm, we've recruited graphic designers, web site designers, video editors, public relations members, etc. There is more to preparing students for STEM than just preparing them for engineering. 

One of my students will graduate and most likely will become a businessman, or politician. This student has learned quite a bit as he has fielded questions about our team and our robot to inspectors. Additionally, he has learned some engineering and how to deal with the creative/technical side of a business.  All of these people will be involved in technical careers in some fashion. Even the modern author has to have some problem solving skills when their word processor fails them.

You can follow FIRST Team 3753 on their website, on Instagram (@bulahbots3753) or on their Facebook page.

Who are the BulahBots?

Almost two years ago, I blogged about a book called The New Cool, which tells the inspiring (on a number of levels) story of a FIRST Robotics team and their journey. Recently I have been following another FIRST Robotics team with particular interest, FIRST Team 3753 - BulahBots. Led by Shawn Liner, this team from Parkview Baptist School in Baton Rouge recently landed themselves on the FIRST map by earning a trip to the FIRST Robotics Championship (as in National Championship) in St. Louis. I figured this would be the perfect time to share their story with you and provide you with some food for thought over the next few weeks. Before we get into all the takeaways from such a program, let's get to know FIRST Team 3753 a little better. Shawn graciously agreed to indulge my barrage of questions, and the first part of my interview with him appears below. I will post updates and additional portions of the interview periodically so check back frequently.

You can follow FIRST Team 3753 on their website or on their Facebook page.

Now, I give you the BulahBots...

Nathan: What is FIRST Robotics?
Shawn: Touted as the “Varsity Sport For The Mind”, FIRST Robotics is an organization that uses robots to create an athletic atmosphere for a mental competition. FIRST actually runs from young middle school through high school. For younger students there are Lego-based robotics competitions, where the robot is small enough to fit on a table. For high school students, the robots can weigh in at 135 pounds and stand 6 feet tall. Teams are encouraged to simulate an engineering firm with different components, such as image teams, public relations, community outreach, project management, budget control, and of course product (the robot).

Nathan: What inspired you to create a FIRST Robotics team at your school?
Shawn: I teach at a private school where many of my students have not really had a “shop” experience. However, I’m teaching tomorrow’s physicists, chemists, doctors and engineers. I often have used tools as an example in class and students wouldn't really have a grasp of those tools.  I also felt that students were going into the engineering field (or choosing not to) out of an ignorance of engineering actually is and what engineers actually do. As a result I created an introduction to engineering class that is intended to be a survey course of engineering. We talk about what each discipline does, we do some drafting, we do some programming, we build some Lego robots, and we launch some water rockets, all the while learning how they work. I've thought of doing all of these things in physics class, but I run out of time before I get to really experiment with some of these different activities. This course became my sandbox where I could play a little without compromising the curriculum of an AP Physics class.Then, at an NSTA conference, I took a field trip to see FIRST robotics. I saw kids doing so many of the things that I was trying to get across to them in engineering class. However, they were showing up after school to do it and then they were in the stands cheering each other on for it. So I had to dig further. The problem is that robotics is expensive. Therefore, it took me a while to get the program up and running.

Nathan: How did you recruit kids to participate? Was there a "sales pitch?"
Shawn: I handpicked ten kids and recruited them. “Hey, come watch this video, you want to do this?”  Six of them bit and we started a team. The next fall we had a “club fair” at school where we got to show off our club and our robot. We drove the robot around and I had twice that many kids interested in no time at all. Now I've got twenty kids and don’t really know what to do with them all. After presenting our regional trophy to the school at chapel, I've already had several new inquiries this semester.

Nathan: How did you come up with Bulah Bots?
Shawn: I was determined to have a school team. I wanted to see students pour the kind of energy usually reserved for football and basketball into engineering. So I dug around for something related to our mascot. Unfortunately, “eagles” is a very common mascot and we wanted to compete nation-wide. Names like eaglebots, eagle robotics, etc, were all taken. We tried Raptor Robotics. It was nice, but didn't have the ring to it that we wanted. My image team sat and brainstormed ideas. I told them to ignore the school connection at first and just think of stuff. "Think like an engineering/athletic company that wanted a marketable, copyrightable, name, image logo etc." After the initial brainstorm they presented ideas.  They had some good ideas, but I was bothered by straying away from our school completely. (By the way, most school team names, colors, mascots, etc, have little or nothing to do with their school). I asked for another brainstorm session and they hit on BulahBots. “Bulah” is a chant/drum cadence that our school borrowed from Yale.  So we had something there, and no graduate of our school asks us where the name comes from. It’s like an inside story that automatically endears us to our alumni.  We’ve chosen an official spelling and font, created a website, chosen official team colors, and created “Bulah” our mascot, a little robot in 3D program that we can pose for iconic recognition on t-shirts, buttons, etc.

Nathan: What does your team's robot do?
Shawn: The game changes every year. This year our robot receives Frisbees on one end of the field, drives (fast) to the other end of the field and shoots them into a goal that is roughly nine feet off the ground. We are also equipped to hang from a horizontal pole that is thirty inches off the ground; this is a bonus round of the game. We had to make many tough choices in designing our bot, giving up on some things in order to do what we do well.

Nathan: How did your team come up with the design to accomplish that task?
Shawn: Mostly brainstorm and mockup. We spent several hours trading the marker in front of my classroom's dry erase board. We used lumber to mock up our ideas and made sure they worked before we built the final part. An intern from LSU also was able to CAD up some of our ideas so that we were sure things would fit.  After that, it was tweaking and more tweaking.

Nathan: Did it work the first time your team attempted the task?
Shawn: Well, yes, mostly. We did mock them up and CAD them up before we really built. It shot inconsistently at first and we found it was better to allow the wheel to compress instead of the Frisbee. We did spend over a week (I’d guess twenty to thirty hours) practicing the driving, loading, and climbing before competition. As part of the process we also chose our drivers, and feeders during that time.

Intrigued yet? Stay tuned for more about the Bulah Bots and what this experience teaches kids beyond just how to build a robot and toss Frisbees.