Kids Are Awesome, Ya Know?

Kinja'd!!! "Matt Nichelson" (whoismatt)
02/23/2016 at 21:43 • Filed to: Kids

Kinja'd!!!11 Kinja'd!!! 12

After the day we’ve had with the weather, it was nice to hear something that made me smile. So my stepson is 7 and is in the gifted program at his school. They competed in a robotics competition earlier on and managed to make it to the state competition in Vicksburg today. His dad took him to it since he was off work and we were unable to go. This evening my wife gets an email from his teacher about how things went.

During the part of the competition where they had to talk about their robot, my stepson was on stage doing the talking while another boy worked the robot. The other boy is confined to a wheelchair. While he was operating it, one of the wheels stopped working. Keep in mind, at this point their team was in third place and could have gone to nationals if they finished there, and add to this the fact they were competing against middle schoolers. My stepson sees what happened and instead of just standing there, he excuses himself from the judges and goes to fix the wheel because the other boy, being in a wheelchair, would not have been able to fix it. Because of this, though, they went over their time limit and finished fourth.

Did he care though? Nope. He wanted to make sure his friend didn’t have to try and fix it and possibly hurt himself.

Kids, man. They’re pretty awesome.


DISCUSSION (12)


Kinja'd!!! $kaycog > Matt Nichelson
02/23/2016 at 21:52

Kinja'd!!!0

Yes, kids are awesome. Your stepson is even more awesome.


Kinja'd!!! Van Man, rocks the Man Van > Matt Nichelson
02/23/2016 at 21:56

Kinja'd!!!1

Kids are awesome.


Kinja'd!!! Under_Score > Matt Nichelson
02/23/2016 at 21:59

Kinja'd!!!0

Aw, this is so sweet! Are the robots still Lego modules that you plug into the computer and program to do certain tasks, or are they much more advanced? I was in Target back in elementary school, and in fifth grade, some of the kids in the program went to a competition with the robots. My older sister actually competed back when she was in fifth grade. However, I was a fifth grader in 2009, and technology has changed a lot since then.


Kinja'd!!! E92M3 > Matt Nichelson
02/23/2016 at 22:33

Kinja'd!!!1

There’s a lot of lessons we can learn from kids. They are some of the most considerate, un-selfish, nonpredujice, pure beings on earth. Somehow we ruin all of that with our society.


Kinja'd!!! Matt Nichelson > $kaycog
02/23/2016 at 22:43

Kinja'd!!!1

Thank you. I was very proud of him for sure.


Kinja'd!!! Matt Nichelson > Under_Score
02/23/2016 at 22:48

Kinja'd!!!0

I know right? I thought it was awesome and I was very proud of him for handling it the way he did.

Yeah I believe these are of the more advanced variety. I’ll have to look up what the name is of the kit they had to use.

Also, thanks for making me feel old. I was a fifth grader in 1995. Think about how much technology has changed since then!


Kinja'd!!! Matt Nichelson > E92M3
02/23/2016 at 22:49

Kinja'd!!!0

I completely agree. It’s a shame, but that last bit is sad but unfortunately true.


Kinja'd!!! shop-teacher > Matt Nichelson
02/23/2016 at 23:40

Kinja'd!!!0

That is awesome! What a great kid!


Kinja'd!!! Matt Nichelson > shop-teacher
02/24/2016 at 08:49

Kinja'd!!!0

Thanks!


Kinja'd!!! TheRealBicycleBuck > Matt Nichelson
02/24/2016 at 09:06

Kinja'd!!!0

Great kid. Which robotics league is he in? My son is in the First Lego League, but now that the official season is over (they placed in state, but didn’t make nationals), they are preparing for a local competition.


Kinja'd!!! Matt Nichelson > TheRealBicycleBuck
02/24/2016 at 09:23

Kinja'd!!!0

Not sure if this is the league name, but what they used is called Vex IQ robotics. I had to look it up this morning because i couldn’t remember.


Kinja'd!!! shop-teacher > Matt Nichelson
02/24/2016 at 09:26

Kinja'd!!!1

You’re welcome! Thanks for sharing a great story!