Young Engineers Make Life Easier for Brightview Residents

Over the past few months, local students from the FIRST Lego League “Brick Hawks” engineering team “adopted” senior citizens living at Brightview Senior Living Center as they sought to resolve problems facing the elderly throughout the region.

The teams—comprised of young engineers competing in robotics competitions—are working on projects focused on FIRST's 2012 “Senior Solutions" theme. Focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)-centered projects, designing innovative solutions to problems faced by many senior citizens.

In an effort to perform some community service and learn what challenges they should address, the Brick Hawks spent weeks working with local residents at Brightview teaching and learning with them simultaneously.

After the team hosted a playful Legos design challenge with their elders, the team learned that one of the biggest issues for some people at Brightview was their inability to get on the bus for local trips.

“The lowest step on the bus was too high for many residents to be able to comfortably step up on and portable step they used was wobbly and unsafe,” said team parent Catherine Gillies.

Since the team is charged with coming up with a solution for real-world problems, the opportunity to improve the step system for residents was the perfect project.

“The Brick Hawks immediately seized the opportunity to improve the lives of the Brightview residents and divided into two teams,” Gillies said. “The first team manufactured a strong but lightweight wooden step for the bus. Several of the other Brick Hawks also teamed up to design a new way to make all bus steps safer and easier for those with mobility problems.”

Residents and staff at Brightview were so pleased, they held a short ceremony to present the step to local senior citizens, who were delighted with the improvement, Gillies said.