Robots invade Jamaica…
My friend Marvin Hall has been working with middle school students from the Kingston, Jamaica neighborhood of Jones Town. The kids learned robotics, working with Lego Mindstorms, preparing for the First Lego League competition in northern California. Until the day of the trip, it wasn’t clear whether the team would get travel funding or visas to travel to San Jose and compete against top Californian teams. But ultimately Scotiabank stepped up as a sponsor and the team had the chance to compete. They were awarded a special Judges’ award as the team that “came the furthest and overcame the most obstacles.” Marvin’s work to help Jamaican kids discover that they’re able to create, invent and compete against peers anywhere in the world is, to me, very inspiring - congratulations to Marvin, Halls of Learning and “LEGO Yuh Mind”.
February 1st, 2006 at 3:49 am
i would like to meet marvin hall and interview him for my show.
February 1st, 2006 at 4:34 am
Irina - drop me an email - ethanz AT gmail DOT com - and I’ll try to make that happen.
March 5th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
[...] Marvin sees a very stark choice for the youth he’s working with - they exercise their minds through robotics or other forms of creative expression, or there’s a good chance they’ll end up trapped in the violence that surrounds them. So far, Marvin’s brought a group of his kids to compete in the First Lego League competition in San Jose, California. Now, on the heels of a Stanford Digital Vision fellowship, he’s committing to getting a team to the 2007 World Robotics Olympiad in Taipei. [...]