By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

The Geneseo School Board is being asked to have a Lego League Club funded by the school district.

Sara Bertelsen, biology teacher at GHS and a National Certified STEM teacher, presented the request at the January meeting of the Geneseo School Board. (STEM is an acronym for fields of study in science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

In an interview with Bertelsen, she said, “Our proposal to the school board is to have the coaching positions and program funded by the district so it is sustainable. We are not asking the community for money in the form of fundraising.”

She explained the Lego League is a STEM program designed to teach students how to collaborative problem solving and design solutions to community and global issues.

“The district has not had a Lego League since the 2016-2017 school year,” she said. “It was a grant funded program that ran out of money.”

Bertelsen coached the League one year for the district and then for two years with other parents as a community team.

“As someone who has coached three teams, I have firsthand experience in seeing how the Lego League program can increase student capacity,” she said. “Students not only learn how to design and build a robot, but they also learn how to program that robot to maneuver it through different challenges on a game table. In addition, students are tasked with a unique innovation project each year.”

Bertelsen shared an example from last year when a team was asked to design a solution to help improve global shipping…”Our team of 4-7th graders spent time researching different ideas, presenting to each other and then landed on trying to prevent porch pirates from stealing packages.”

Their solution was to create a door mat with a pressure sensor connected to a camera and the camera would take a picture of the person dropping the package off as well as anyone removing the package. The picture would be sent to the owner of the “Security CamMat Pro.”

“The kids researched pressure sensors, ring cameras, and weatherproofing supplies among other things,” Bertelsen said. ‘They then designed their solution, created logos and determined appropriate price points.”

At the Regional competition, those students presented their innovation project in the form of an infomercial as well as competing with their robot in the robot game, she said, and added, “Last year’s team qualified for the State competition, but was unable to compete due to pandemic conflicts.”

She added, “Enrichment opportunities like this should be available to all students; not just the students with parents willing to coach and those financially able to afford the program…Our next goal is to get final school board approval and find interested teachers to coach and community members to mentor.”

When asked about the plan for the Lego League if approved by the school board, Bertelsen said, “If approved and we can get coaches, there will be one elementary team and one middle school team next year. I coach the high school robotics team. I was one of three the last two years when it was a community team. Andy Balensiefen and James Roodhouse coached with me.”

Bertelsen said she did not know what the cost would be for the district to fund the Lego League, but added that it would be determined based on a new contract, “which is not yet determined.”

ABOUT SARA BERTELSEN

Bertelsen said she earned a Master’s in STEM because of her interest in pedagogy and curriculum…”These both have a huge impact on student learning,” she said. “I was frustrated by the misconception that learning should be built on memorization of facts. I know that students learn more and are better able to apply their learning when they are asked to work with each other to use real data to draw conclusions or solve problems. STEM is a way of thinking and not just an acronym. It is collaboration, exploration, critical thinking, engineering design, and problem solving. And it can (and should be) utilized in all classrooms.”