There are countless places most teenagers would rather be than at school on a Saturday morning. But ESC student Clay Guzik gladly showed up to Grandview Heights’ Edison Intermediate School each weekend from October through January.

click photo to enlarge         ESC student Clay Guzik holds the regional championship trophy his FIRST Lego League Team won.

Behold the power of robots and space-age Legos.

Guzik is a student in Cindy McIntire’s class for students with behaviorial issues at Edison. As a member of the school’s eighth grade FIRST Lego League team, Clay helped to build and program a Lego robot that could perform “missions.”

“I just loved it so much,” Guzik said. “It was just a lot of fun.”

The team would then pit its robot against those of other teams to see which machine could complete missions within a certain time. Mission tasks included retrieving objects or pushing a button to expand a Lego solar panel.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Guzik said. “You can do quite a bit more with these types of Legos.”

Guzik’s team won a regional competition and advanced to the state level in mid-January. Guzik and his teammates placed 15th out of 49, the highest placement yet for the school.

McIntire said the experience has built more than robots.

“This sort of involvement is very instrumental in building social skills and a sense of belonging,” she said. “Clay's self-esteem and enthusiasm for school has benefited from this experience. His leadership skills have been enhanced as well.”

click photo to enlarge         Guzik at the Lego team's practice facility. An example of a mission would be for their robot to deploy the solar panels in the foreground.

In addition to the robot’s power, teams were judged on teamwork, presentation and research-project elements at each stage of competition. This year’s theme required Guzik and his team to study a local building for energy efficiency. Guzik focused his efforts on the windows in the Grandview Municipal Building, which was fitting because his parents own a window business.

But the window study wasn’t the only family connection. Guzik’s father got involved in helping and now the two are thinking of starting their own nonschool-affiliated team next year with other interested students.

“My dad and I really loved doing this,” said Guzik, who received one of the Lego NXT robots for Christmas.

Through having fun on Saturday mornings at school, Guzik expanded his experience with technology and programming, so it’s no wonder that he has ambitions to be a software or video game designer.

McIntire sees Guzik's success having other unintentional benefits as well.

"Any time one of our students is involved in something that highlights intelligence, it helps negate any stereotypes that we serve students who are not as capable of learning as their peers. His participation also has created awareness of Lego League's existence," McIntire said.

“Hopefully, next year’s team will be bigger than it would have been due to Clay’s influence.”