The Barboursville RoboPirates is a group of students from Barboursville Middle School and Davis Creek Elementary. This group toured TMMWV and spent time discussing robotics with John Daly, Engineering Assistant Manager, and Amanda Holbrook, TEMA Engineering Specialist on May 6, 2009.

The RoboPirates are participants in the FIRST LEGO LEAGUE competitions.
FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an exciting and fun global robotics program that ignites an enthusiasm for discovery, science, and technology in kids ages 9 to 14.  Each year FLL teams embark on an adventurous Challenge based on current, real-world issues. Guided by a team coach and assisted by mentors, the kids:
Research and solve a real-world problem based on the Challenge theme
Present their research and solutions
Build an autonomous robot using engineering concepts
FIRST LEGO League engages younger children in playful and meaningful learning while helping them to discover the fun in science and technology. So far, FLL has reached more than 135,000 kids in 45 countries around the globe.

Pictures below are from recent competitions. In one of the events, Barboursville Middle School RoboPirates won 1st Place for Robotic Performance (388 points, 400 possible) and 2nd place for Robot Design.  They were judged on Robot Performance, Teamwork, Technical Design, and the Research Project.
 
 

The students meet once a week after school for two hours and during competition season, all day on Saturdays. The students do not receive extra credit from school for this activity even though they employ their math and science skills during these activities.

Basically what the students do is program an RCX brick and build manipulators to accomplish a task, they also program NXT robots to accomplish 10-20 tasks in two and one-half minutes. They receive a RCX or NXT brick and build it from scratch to accomplish whatever task the FIRST LEGO LEAGUE gives us each year. If you look through the pictures on our web site you can see us from start to finish.

These students work very hard. They are required to do the "game" the 10-20 activities in two and one-half minutes (usually the games consists of 400 points) and a research project on the current topic. They are judged on the design of their robot. They are also judged how well they work together as a team. They do all the work, a coach is only a sounding board for ideas.