A group of P.S. Jones Middle School students is prepping for a LEGO Robotics competition — a first for Beaufort County.

The group is the first team in Beaufort County to participate in the event, said Al Powell, the director of the Police Activities League (PAL) and a mentor for the program.

The LEGO Robotics program tasks the team of students with building a robot out of computerized LEGO kits, said Dr. Mike McClure, a volunteer mentor for the team. The team is headed by Michael Cobb,  a PAL volunteer, and Leticia Padilla, a seventh-grade science teacher at P.S. Jones. The students not only have to structurally build a LEGO object that works engineering-wise, but also have to program the “brain” to do something using a computer program. The computer program they use is basic and user-friendly and uses language recognized by the LEGO robot to accomplish specific missions on the table, or game board, McClure said.

Brylee Phillips, a 6^th-grade team member, used the computer program to operate the robot during a team practice Wednesday, and described the team’s involvement in figuring out how to complete the tasks.

“We have to make a robot that will make it do each mission, and we have to complete each mission without touching the robot or we will lose points,” Phillips said. “Everybody programs the robot. We have different computers, and every time we have to do something else, our mentors or coaches tell us what we have to do and then we have to figure it out and then we have to get the robot to do it.”

The first competition will be held on Nov. 22 at the Neal STEM Academy of Engineering and Design, will involve 19 teams competing with and against each other.

Each team starts in the corner of their game board and has to complete 10 different missions.

“Two kids stand there and turn it on and off, aim it, set it and so on, and if they’ve done everything right, when they push it, the robot will go where they told it to go, it will do what they told it to do, and it will come back home,” McClure said. “And we’re not allowed to program a ‘Hooray’ in there, but it does make a little noise.”

McClure said a panel of judges grades each team. Each team has a chance to earn up to 800 points, and they have two and a half minutes to run the board. The judges look for three main components of each team: robot design, which includes simplicity, structural integrity and how the robot performs; project, which illustrates the theme; and FLL core values, which grades social interactions, team sportsmanship, how the team works together and how a team interacts with other teams. The ‘project’ component entails each team coming up with a presentation related to the theme: ‘How do we help people learn better?’ according to McClure. The P.S. Jones team plans to do a skit that relates to assistive technology used by first responders, including law enforcement, military and others. The skit is a tribute to PAL, which purchased all the materials and equipment, and relates to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), McClure said.

Beaufort County PAL partnered with Beaufort County Schools to implement the STEM-based program in Beaufort County. It focuses on law enforcement teaming up with youth through STEM activities and sports to increase the relationship and understanding between the two and reduce juvenile delinquency and other problems., Powell said.

“Our theme is how do we come up with creative ways in STEM so kids are learning to become good citizens, stay in school and embrace STEM classes rather than run from them, and by the time they get in high school, they have a good idea of what career they want to pursue and they’re thinking about their future,” Powell said.

Cobb said though there hasn’t been anything like this in the county and the students haven’t had much exposure to the technology, he hopes the students will enjoy the competition. The students have worked at a good rate to figure out how to accomplish the missions, mostly by trial and error, he said.

“When we go next door to Greenville, we have several different teams that started way back in the summer so we’re about three or four months behind those teams,” Cobb said. “We started off at a bit of a downfall, but I feel like they can go into the competition and do a great job — as long as they have fun doing it. This is a good, solid group. Of course, I want them to do good because they work hard and they’ve been pretty dedicated to it. It would be great if they could come out with something in hand and they win something, but at the end of the day, if they win or not, I want them to have a good time.

For more information about LEGO Robotics and the FLL competition the P.S. Jones team will compete in, visit http://www.ncfirstrobotics.org/programs/first-lego-league.