Modern Minds Learning robotics team’s energy idea wins first at states

The nine-student team presented its solution to the energy crisis: turning cow farts into power.

JARLEENE ALMENAS SENIOR EDITOR

Is there a way to capture methane from cows and convert it into energy?

Nine students at Modern Minds Learning put their heads together to see if they could engineer a solution to that question — though, as a group of fourth through eighth graders, they phrased it a bit differently. They asked themselves, “What if we could make power from cow farts?”

Eighth grader Michael Meyer may have been the brains behind the suggestion.

“Everybody laughed, but then it became an actual idea,” Michael said. Six months later, the Modern Minds Mechanics team qualified for the FIRST LEGO League State Championship held at the University of North Florida on Friday and Saturday, March 31 and April 1, where they competed against over 600 robotics teams from across the state for spots at the World Championship.

Every season, FIRST releases a real-world theme for its challenge, with this year’s being enegry, and the Modern Minds Mechanics won first place for its innovation project.

Through research and interviews with experts, students brainstormed a collection method similar to that of a greenhouse, where cows would roam freely, but a dome of polycarbonate sheet would help capture their methane.

The base of the farm would be composed of carbon bricks made of the excess carbon dioxide.

Seeing the students develop a concept and coaching them through how to bring it to fruition is amazing, said Morgan Phillips, STEM instructor at Modern Minds Learning in Ormond Beach. Children often come up with ideas that adults may dismiss at first, Phillips said, but it’s important to let them think them through.

“Even if it’s not doable right now, 15 years from now, the technology that is out there now is going to be obsolete,” she said. “... What they envision for the future is possible, and if we tell that it’s not, then we won’t have people who are trying to build those opportunities.”

That’s part of why she left the public school system, where she taught for seven years and ran after school robotics clubs. She believes in the Modern Minds Learning program, which combines virtual online learning with a focus on STEM and outdoor education.

At the regionals held in Orlando, the Modern Minds Mechanics team won overall for robotic design — a first for any of Phillips’ past teams.

“It’s a privilege to be their teacher and for them to allow me to be their coach and them to put their faith in me,” Phillips said.

Phillips also coaches an all-girls team, but they didn’t make it to states. They’re determined to work hard to change that next year.

For Rhyse Sukhija, the only girl on the Modern Minds Mechanics team, competing in robotics and working on the FIRST project has been a cool opportunity.

Before Phillips started teaching at Modern Minds, Rhyse said she didn’t know much about FIRST Lego League or robotics.

“I wasn’t sure if I would like it at all, but it turned out this is probably one of my favorite things to do now,” Rhyse said. “I think you have so many opportunities and different things to learn from doing this and you can really just understand that no matter how old you are, you can solve worldwide problems, and you can actually have an impact on the world.”

Rhyse, one of the eighth graders on the team, said students have learned that coding in robotics is all trial and error.

“It can really help with life skills when you learn that nothing is going to be perfect the first time,” she said. “It could take you years to get one thing right, but the more you do it, the more skilled you become, and the better whatever you’re working on gets.”

Michael agreed. He recently started coding.

“It takes perseverance and consistency to get it right,” he said.

Rhyse said she was looking forward to presenting the team’s Farms of the Future idea, which the team is also sharing with large dairy companies.

“I love having the ability to explain something that we created to others,” Rhyse said. “... It is the idea that we worked so hard to come up with. It is ours, and we are giving it to the world.”