Kirkwood Girls Gear Up for Robotics Championship

All the extra hours and hard work has paid off for a group of Kirkwood Girl Scouts determined to make a mark in the St. Louis robotics world.

Tie Dye Turtles, a robotics team comprised of sixth- and eighth-grade students from Kirkwood, will compete in the Eastern Missouri Robotics Championship Sunday after advancing in a league qualifying tournament in November.

The league qualifying tournament included 150 Robotics teams competing for one of 40 spots available in the championship and received a Champions Award, the highest honor possible, which recognizes a team that performs exceptionally in each stage of the competition.

Meagan Biesiadecki, a member of the Tie Dye Turtles, attributes the team's success to hard work and organized meetings.

“We would meet every Monday during the season and sometimes on the weekend as we got closer to competition,” Biesiadecki said. “It didn’t make sense for us to all work on the same thing, so each week our team of six would split into teams of two. One team would work on the robot and the other would work on the research project.”

The research portion of the competition requires teams to complete a research project based on this year’s challenge, food safety, and determine a solution. The teams present their findings to a panel of judges during the competition. The Tie Dye Turtles spent their season researching the safety of apples.

Tie Dye Turtles member Jenna Heaton said that she learned a lot about how to prevent apples from spoiling that she did not know before. The team was even able to teach the judges a thing or two by creating an interactive skit that required participation from the panel.

“We asked the judges several questions about how to keep apples from spoiling and our answers revealed a lot of insight,” Heaton said. “For example, apples only last on the counter for one to two days. They can last in the refrigerator for up to a month but the temperature of the fridge must be 40 degrees or below.”

Since many people are unaware of how to safely consume apples and prevent them from spoiling, the Tie Dye Turtles proposed a solution of printing safety tips on the front of produce bags. The girls felt that this was the most effective way to spread the message about handling produce.

Girl Scout Robotics is a program created through a partnership with Girl Scouts of USA (GSUSA) and FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The program fosters opportunities for girls to explore STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers by providing hands-on experience in the designing, building and programming of robots.

For the robot portion of the Robotics competition the girls use LEGO® Mindstorm, a game kit that contains the software and hardware necessary to create small, customizable and programmable robots. Each team is responsible for programming the robot to complete a series of missions that revolve around food safety.

The Tie Dye Turtle’s robot, Turtilina, is programmed to complete a variety of missions including traveling around the game table collecting and disposing of rodents and bacteria. The robot then travels to the farm to collect corn and returns to base with groceries. Both Heaton and Biesiadecki list this as their favorite part of robotics.

“I love the engineering part of Robotics, but I also love working together with my team,” Biesiadecki said.

This is the team’s second year competing in the robotics competition. Jenna said that because of Robotics, she’s found herself more interested in science class.  

"I could see myself going into science," Heaton said. "I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, so maybe a science teacher.”

Girls who participate in Robotics are inspired to become science and technology leaders in the future and truly enjoy the hands-on experience. Take advantage of the Robotics program to get your daughter or a young girl that you know interested in STEM as well. Contact Michelle Currie at 314-592-2376 or mcurrie@girlscoutsem.org to find out how to get a young girl enrolled for next season.

The Eastern Missouri Championship will be held Sunday at St. Louis Community College in Florissant. One team from the Eastern Missouri Championship will be selected to represent the greater St. Louis area at the FIRST® World Championship in April.

Thank you to Lauren Smith and Kathryn Kiefer for sharing this information with our readers.