The Dragonbotz team interviewed
their robotics coach, Ms. Veryl Greene, who is a senior citizen and probably
one of the oldest FLL coaches in NYC.
They discovered that Ms. Greene has a variety of interests, hobbies, and
difficulties in her daily life.
For example, Ms. Greene likes to
dance hip-hop and salsa. She is a nature photographer and camper. She is also likes to build with
LEGO and she is not a shame to admit that she is an AFOLR (Adult Fan Of LEGO
& Robotics). She is especially talented in constructing robots out of LEGO
Mindstorms kit.
However, Ms. Greene has certain
problems doing some of her favorite activities. She has an eye condition,
Macular Degeneration of the retina. Eventually, she may not be able to drive to
go camping by herself. She has trouble seeing how to fit tiny LEGO elements
together and configuring NXT-G programming for her robots.
Besides this, Ms. Greene needs to
take medicine pills and vitamins daily, but sometimes forgets to take them;
like a lot of other seniors. She is retired from full time teaching with the
NYC DOE, but she keeps very busy with her pets, still does some teaching, and
of course coaching, so she needs a reminder of some sort to ensure that she
takes her medicine and vitamins. So, Ms. Greene would like a reminder robot to tell her to take her pills, also what day it is, when her favorite
television show is about to come on, and more. She likes technology, computers
and iPads, because it helps her to continue to read and write. Most of all, Ms.
Greene would like to have companion like the robot in the movie “Robot and
Frank.” She says, “That would be Way Cool!”
