RICHMOND, Va. — A middle school robotics team is working to change the way that packages could be delivered to Virginia's rural areas.
The Saint Bridget Middle School Robotics Team came up with the idea "Bus Boxes" as part of their innovation project to help transport Amazon packages to more remote areas on school buses. Now, their idea is making its way through the Virginia General Assembly.
The idea would give bus drivers the chance to make extra money during the hours between student pick-up and drop-off.
"I think this could be a great opportunity," said Ava Dillard, one of the students involved in the project. "The bus drivers can get like more jobs and do more stuff during, like, hours that they're not working. And I think that this could be really good for Virginia, the U.S., everywhere."
The 22-foot boxes would be made of recyclable materials and could hold 20 to 25 packages. They would be installed at the bottom of a school bus on the sides.
These middle schoolers conducted their own research, as well as talked to engineer and transportation experts. They learned one of the main problems in transporting products is that delivery companies are spending 53% of all shipping costs on getting packages to the final destination, called the “final mile delivery."
This would cut down on that cost, and it’s now being considered by state lawmakers.
The bill, sponsored by Republican Senator Siobhan Dunnavant, recently received unanimous approval from the senate and a house subcommittee to actually look into the idea.
Eric De Boer, one of the robotics team’s coaches, said he couldn’t be prouder of these students.
"It is tremendously fulfilling as an educator," De Boer explained. "You want real life situations. You want to see students be able to have an idea, and to see it actually come to fruition, to see that what they do matters in school, to see that they are making an impact in the lives of others."
These middle school students are now pros in science and problem solving, but they’ve also gotten a civic lesson during the process. Now, they understand how to communicate with their local representatives.
"It was kind of scary at first having to talk to someone who's so high up in Virginia, especially in the government," Langdon Tollet, the project's innovation lead, explained. "She was very nice. It was a streamlined process. She helped us out, but we did get to learn a lot about how the Virginia government works."
The Saint Bridget Robotics Team is one of 108 teams from 50 different countries heading to the First Lego League World Championships in April. The competition started out with 24,000 teams, and Saint Bridget was the only team from Virginia to advance.
The students said they're prepared and excited for the competition, but they're more excited about the possibility of their "Bus Boxes" project coming to life in Virginia.
"This has just been amazing," said William McLemore, robot engineer and programmer. "I can't believe that we actually have this bus box project about to get on the road. This is just a dream come true. It's crazy.”
