Photos
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The Award Ceremony
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Children controlled FTC robots
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An example of the LEGO models done by children in one of the teams
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Surgeons from Saint Barnabas Medical Center listened to project presentation by one of the teams
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Doctors from Saint Barnabas Medical Center at LRC Jr.FLL Expo. Left to right: Dr. Anthony Quartell, MD; Margie Heller (Director – Patient and Community Relations); Dr. Nitrin Patel, MD; Dr. Michael LaSalle, MD; and Louis LaSalle (VP External Affairs).
Surgeons Inspired Children at Junior FIRST LEGO League Expo
Sunday, June 5, 2011 • 8:00am
Livingston Robotics Club (LRC) held the 2nd Annual LRC Jr. FIRST LEGO League Expo at the Livingston Township Oval on May 28, 2011. The largest outdoor Jr.FLL Expo in the nation was part of the Family Festival Day during Livingston Youth Appreciation Week on the Memorial Day weekend. This year, in line with the “Body Forward” theme, the LRC Jr. FLL Expo was sponsored by Saint Barnabas Medical Center.
Three surgeons from the Saint Barnabas Medical Center Robotic Surgery team volunteered their time to review the work done by students ages 6-9 from 16 robotics teams from Livingston, Cedar Grove, Glen Rock, Kendall Park, Montvale, Morris Plains, Old Bridge, Short Hills and Springfield. Students have been working on their "Body Forward" projects and LEGO models related to biomedical engineering on how tools and devices are used in the medical field to help patients. This Expo was an end-of-season celebration and an invitation for children to join in for the next season, "Snack Attack", on food safety.
The surgeons were very impressed with the work done by the children and gave them a lot compliments. Dr. Michael LaSalle also explained to the children on the importance of how engineering can help the medical field by creating new devices that can be used to help patients.
At the Expo, Landroids, a winning FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championship team of LRC, hosted a robot demonstration. Landroids and the Lancers, another winning team from Livingston High School, showed their robots on a playing field to children.
Two LRC FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams, Landrias and Exit 5 Robotics, showed visitors their FIRST LEGO League robots and the game field for the competition for children ages 9-14. The work of young children and the robot demonstrations presented the continuum of FIRST robotics programs from kindergarten to grade 12.
There was a new enrichment activity for this year's Expo. BioBus, the mobile biology lab, gave an opportunity for children to use lab-quality microscopes to look at the micro-organisms. There was also a demonstration to introduce the concept of self-organizing nanobots. Children participated in one of the group sessions onboard the BioBus. They also enjoyed many outdoor activities as part of the Family Festival Day.
Before the award ceremony at the end of the Expo, Saint Barnabas Medical Center gave children some surprises. The Jr.FLL participants will be invited to go to the hospital to try on their "da Vinci" robotics surgical system. The youngsters will also be invited to the auditorium to observe a live procedure using da Vinci. This will be one of the post-expo activities. The other activity will include book illustration on how to make our body healthy in space. The book will be sent to NASA astronaut Sunita Williams who will be part of the Expedition 33 to International Space Station.
At the award ceremony, each team was given an award with medals and certificate with a specific award title. For more information, visit http://www.LivingstonRobotics.org/
