Brainy chickens make a robot, save school $120,000

by MARY ANN REESE

When Post Falls third and fourth graders teamed up to enter a make-a-robot competition in 2007, they had no idea the challenge would help them find a way to save their school district some $120,000 a year.

Five girls and three boys in the Panic Stricken Brainy Chickens team from Ponderosa Elementary had to build and program a robot to complete up to 13 tasks for an Idaho-wide competition staged in Meridian on January 26, 2008.

Their second task for entry into Idaho’s premier FIRST LEGO League tournament also required them and 33 other Idaho teams to study energy uses and seek ways to save energy in a familiar building.

The Brainy Chickens discovered that each computer left on at their school 24/7 cost $11.03 a month in electricity. Cost drops to $2.78 when computers are on only 9 hours each weekday. If all the district’s 1,600 computers were powered down, savings could exceed $120,000 a year.

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna is so impressed he’s asked for copies of the Post Falls elementary students’ report.

Karlicia Berry, coordinator of the Northern Idaho Robotics4Kids program, expects to quadruple Post Falls’ participation next year. She finds the pro-gram “awesome, because robots capture the children’s imaginations. It’s so empowering for kids to get on a computer, write a program, and make a robot respond. These 9-year-olds research global problems that real scientists face and are offering local solutions.”