Techno tornadoes whip up a big win

COEUR d’ALENE — The Techno Tornadoes 4-H club, a quartet of young, budding engineers and project developers, won the top prize last weekend at the North Idaho First Lego League robotics championship tournament in Moscow, Idaho.

Teammates Natalie Ancker, a ninth-grade student at Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy; Nicolai Epling, a Charter Academy sixth-grader; and Joe Broder and Jase Dryden, a pair of seventh-grade students at Coeur d’Alene’s Canfield Middle School; were named the Champion’s Award Winning Team for North Idaho.

As champions, the Hayden-based 4-H club team will receive an invitation to compete in May in the North American Open Championship Tournament in Carlsbad, Calif., the home of Legoland California.

“Most of these kids came from different groups that aren’t in existence any more,” said Natalie Ancker’s mother, Robyn. “These kids came from different teams, and it was their first year working together. They really found each other so they could do this.”

This year’s competition challenged teams of students age 9-14 to create a robotic device that will help senior citizens remain independent, active community members, thereby improving the quality of their lives.

The Techno Tornadoes developed a robotic arm that allows an individual in need of assistance to independently perform a task like getting cereal or a spice off a pantry shelf.

Robyn Ancker said the judges were impressed that the team’s robot had a sensor. The device uses video-gaming system technology in which the human body acts as a controller.

The competition also required participants to display the ability to work well as a team, find solution with guidance from coaches and mentors, honor the spirit of friendly competition and share their experience.

"We kind of have fun in the process of actually creating and programming a robot, as well as doing research to figure out something that will be able to help seniors with an everyday problem that they have,"said Natalie Ancker to a reporter from Lewiston television station, KLEW, on the day of the championship tournament.

Timothy Ewers, a University of Idaho associate professor the university’s 4-H extension youth development specialist, told The Press the Techno Tornadoes competed this year against 61 First Lego League teams from throughout North Idaho. They won the Champion’s Award in December in Kellogg and qualified for the North Idaho Championship.

First Lego League teams participating in the University of Idaho’s program come from schools, after-school programs, youth organizations, and neighborhood and church groups.

“As part of the Kootenai County 4-H program, we are very proud of the accomplishments that these local 4-H members have achieved under the guidance and support of their outstanding 4-H volunteer leader, Allyson Gross,” said Jim Wilson, the county’s Area 4-H Youth Extension Educator. “This club also received top honors at the 2011 state championship. The Techno Tornados 4-H Club demonstrate an ongoing commitment of Extension 4-H programs to advance youth development within the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

Time Warner Cable is a major sponsor and contributor to the University of Idaho FIRST LEGO League Program. TWC employees participate as team mentors and as volunteer judges and referees in the Idaho league tournaments.