TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A project engineer and his team of robotics students participated in the First Lego League Challenge, assisting a sloth bear at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo.
AT&T engineer Howard Petree leads the robotics team at Cambridge Christian. In the Lego League Challenge, the team of middle school students researched a real-world problem faced by an animal and developed a solution.
The students began the challenge by asking educators at the zoo about animal habitats and enrichment opportunities for animals.
One of the animals identified was the sloth bear. Enrichment for the animals makes them feel more at home and encourages natural behaviors and exercise.
Lowry Park Zoo leaders liked the idea the team came up with so much, it was installed in the bear’s enclosure on Wednesday.
The robotics team received early support from the AT&T Pioneers and worked for months to come up with the “Sloth Bear Soda.”
In the enrichment activity, the Sloth Bear will smell food through the pipe “straw.” The bear will have to move the straw around in order to get it to fall into one of four holes drilled into the bottom of a five-gallon bucket.
The bear can then blow into the straw to get its food to move around, and then suck it out through the straw.