"CitySights" Challenges Local Youths
Team B.O.B. Learns About Tomball for Robotics Competition

Recently a team of ten children from Spring, Conroe, Tomball, The Woodlands, Magnolia, Kemah, and Kingwood competed in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competition held on December 7, 2002 at Hogg Middle School in the Heights. Through their hard work and dedication and the help of the great people in Tomball, the children took home the Director’s Award for best overall team as well as second place for robot performance.
     Members of the team named B.O.B. (which stands for Builders of Bob, the robot) range from age nine to fourteen and are coached by veteran home-schooling parents and mentors, Susan and Gary Frederick. Participants in the competition were Elizabeth Frederick, Johan Jorna, Brett Jordan, Tye Jordan, Garrett Noble, Ryan Provencher, Steve Sears, Tim Sears, David Uhlman, and Haley Wilson.
     This year's challenge, CitySights, explored the challenges that urban planners face every day in order to provide basic services such as clean water, a safe environment, education, sustainable energy, and venues to the inhabitants of the city. The team must build their own robot to compete in the competition, engage in thorough research, create an informative display at the competition, and participate in a community service project. The requirements entail choosing a city and targeting a specific problem facing that city today. Team B.O.B. chose to research the City of Tomball because they were interested in the history and believed they would learn more if they studied a community in their own area. The team was encouraged by the willingness of Tomball's city officials and department managers to provide access and information about the city. They learned the history of the area with help from former Mayor, Ben Scholl, and Tomball resident, Nevaire Richardson, who is Thomas Ball's great niece.
     CountryStyle, TX asked the children to comment on their experience. Below are some of their responses.

CS: Tell us about your team, how you got involved, what you like best.
Tim and Steve Sears: Team B.O.B. is a robotics team that builds and programs Lego robots to compete in a state competition. We got involved with the team by hearing about it from a homeschool support group meeting. Our favorite part of being involved with Team B.O.B. was competing in the First Lego League competition. (Tim enjoys running the robot, and Steve enjoyed presenting research.)

CS: Tell us two of the most interesting things you learned about Tomball during your research.
Tye Jordan: I learned about Tomball's history. The first people who came to Peck were Indians who spent the winters by Spring Creek. They were probably cannibals. Ben Scholl used to be Tomball's mayor and he told us neat stories about the school burning and a train accident that happened a long time ago. He let us use his Tomball history book too. We got to go to his house and he goes to our church too.
Tim and Steve Sears: Tomball could use a law enforcement robot. Tomball uses the Conroe landfill.

CS: Tell us the names and titles (if they have one) of some of the people you talked to or interviewed about your project. Tell us also how you felt about this process. Were you nervous, excited? Were they friendly or especially helpful?
Brett Jordan: We talked to Assistant City Manager Mary Coker. She gave us permission to submit surveys to the different departments. The worst problem Tomball has from reading the surveys is that it is growing so fast, it is hard to keep up with enough city employees and the cost of expanding so quickly. The city is trying to keep Tomball like a small town, but it isn't easy. They were all very helpful and friendly. Bobby Sanders at the Utilities Department is really busy, but he still made time to talk to us when we went there (about 10 times).
     The kids took their research and information from the members of Tomball’s City Council and city employees and used it to “(develop) Tombot, a robot to work for the city. It would have sensors to detect gas & sewer leaks, a delivery system to neutralize spills, a camera to help the police and fire departments, and some other neat stuff,” according to twelve year old Brett Jordan of the team. The challenge required a lot of research and afforded them a wealth of knowledge. They learned the valuable skill of teamwork, and of course, they are looking forward to participating again next year. CS

Thank you to Tomball’s leaders and employees, once again, for making this a great town for our children to learn and thrive. Compiled with information and assistance provided by Gale Jordan, Susan Frederick, Debbie Brannon, and Debbie Sears.