Family of Engineers Makes Learning a Lifestyle
Terre Haute, IN – The future is bright for the Wabash Valley as some of Terre Haute’s finest minds, are also some of the youngest. WTWO talked to one family that’s made a lifestyle out of learning. Several members of the Langley family are a part of Team Storm.
They’re a FIRST Lego League team made up of 9-15-year-old engineers.
“It’s a robotics team, and we are challenged to build and program a robot completely out of lego,” says 15-year-old Devon Langley.
“You will then program that to autonomously complete missions on this four foot by eight foot field, which is full of different lego models that you have to activate,” says 12-year-old brother, Trevor Langley.
Team Storm came together in 2011. Since then, siblings Devon and Trevor Langley have competed in competitions across the U.S. and abroad.
“We went to an award ceremony in Washington, DC, where we actually won. That feeling–it’s. It kind of told us that we’re doing something right, and this is what we should be doing,” says Devon.
How do they do it? The teenage years can be tough and busy at times. A combination of taking classes online at the Hoosier Academy, and being homeschooled creates a more flexible schedule, and personalized education.
“School takes up a very big portion of my time, but then I’m also very dedicated to First Lego League. It’s my favorite thing that I do. To study, and be prepared, because I don’t want to let my team down at all. And then I also am a dancer, so I dance several times a week,” says Devon.
Trevor has a lot on his plate as well, including already planning for college. He wants to further his engineering skills at Ruse-Hulman, where their dad is a professor. It’s safe to say team coach, AKA, mom, is pretty proud. Not to mention, incredibly supportive.
“Our house has kind of become Team Storm headquarters,” says Lori Langley. “They do all their practices upstairs, and they do all of the robot design and engineering downstairs. So it’s really taken over our lives, and taken over our hearts, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Team Storm will be heading to California to represent the Hoosier state in a tournament next week. Then, they will be representing the U.S. at the International Open Championship in England.
You can meet the science team Friday, May 5th at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum as they host a lego event from 5-7:30pm.
The Team Storm coach says they’re greatly in need of financial support for their upcoming competitions in California and England.
You can contact Lori Langley to support the team, or find out more at [email protected]. You can also follow them on Facebook at FLL100TeamStorm.
[“Source-mywabashvalley”]
