Content on this page is written by the robotics girl participants as support for their projects. Only italicized text is by GSCTX staff.
Girl Scout Robotic Rulers
Waco FLL Team Robotic Rulers has been working hard this season. With transportation as our theme, the girls identified school age children as the community to impact. The team identified that school transportation faced many issues. Travel to and from school constitutes over 50% of morning and afternoon traffic. They focused on finding a solution that was green and fit.
As they researched the problem they found that many parents and children were interested in walking or biking to school but safety from motor traffic and lack of group safety were barriers. Additionally, they sought to find a solution that addressed the health issue of childhood obesity and fitness.
With the help of the team, they researched existing technologies to find out what solutions are currently in place for a safe and efficient way to school with minimal environmental impact. They found a pedestrian bus that operates in Europe where all the people on the bus pedal for locomotion. Further research found pedestrian cars and other vehicles that incorporated the same principle in the U.S.. The girls took the idea for an electric car and the need for exercise and came up with a pollution solution: A Hybrid Pedal Bus. Kids would board a bus and pedal to generate electricity to charge the electric batteries of the bus. This would provide for group safety, exercise, advanced safety (i.e.. seatbelts), and environmental benefits with reduced emissions.
The girls have made a model of their vehicle and a group presentation to illustrate the dangers and their solution! Girl Scout team, Robotic Rulers, have taken a need in their community and applied current technology to create a fun and exciting solution! Go Girl Scouts!!!
Girl Scout Globotics
The Girl Scout Globotics team is a First LEGO League team from the Belton area. They are one of five all Girl Scout robotics teams competing during the 2009-2010 program year.
As a portion of the requirements for the transportation problem component of the robotics competition, team Globotics defined community. Our community in Belton/Temple/Morgans Point includes (in part) schools, churches, neighborhoods, roads, highways, a lake, an airport, and railroads. The girls identified trains as a large potential issue and solution for transportation, so they researched trains, issues with trains, and potential solutions for those issues.
Train spills were identified as a concern. The railroad companies have worked to create fewer spills through better track systems to minimize derailments and double tank cars with liquids suspended in an inside tank so in a derailment, the spill might not get into the environment. However, when trains derail, or when tanker cars leak or rupture, the damage to people, animals, plants, aquatic life, and the environment can be tremendous and long lasting.
Our team decided to solve the spillage issue by using the double layered tanker car design the railroad companies are already using, and add an additional layer of protection to minimize the chance of chemicals entering the environment. Our girls will add an extra layer of absorbable material between the inner tank and the outer tank that forms the tanker car. The absorbable material will absorb the liquid chemical and contain the spill inside the tanker car protecting the environment. The Temple Texas train master agreed that this was an excellent plan.
The girls then created a newscast with experts to explain the problem and solution.
