501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Our Story
Started from a scientist, a child, and a bin of LEGO
Use the arrow keys or the on-screen ‹ › buttons to move through the story.
A scientist's other world
Our founder earned a PhD in environmental science and worked as a research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey — studying water, landscapes, and natural systems. But at home, another world was quietly pulling her in: one built from tiny beams, gears, and a young child's imagination.
It began with a bin of LEGO
When her son was only three or four, he fell in love with LEGO. At first she built beside him simply as a mother — sharing his joy and curiosity.
Falling for the machines
Then she discovered LEGO Technic: gears turning gears, linkages creating motion, small mechanisms acting like real machines. Play became fascination. She built project after project, joined the worldwide Great Ball Contraption community, and shared their creations online. Local programs noticed and asked her to design camp curricula and classes — and when no one could teach them, she stepped in herself.
That step changed everything.
今天看到 Camp 的孩子们把 VEX Ball Contraption 做出来，围在一起玩得不亦乐乎，心里忽然一下被拉回到了九年前。
那时候，我只是为了陪两个孩子玩乐高，没想到一脚踩进了 LEGO Ball Contraption 的“坑”。和今天这些孩子一样，我也曾经每天沉迷其中，满脑子都是齿轮、轨道、小球、结构和各种奇奇怪怪的想法。
那时的日子很简单。每天就是把乐高零件铺开，和孩子们一起在一堆小零件里翻找、拼搭、调试、失败、再来。一个小球顺利滚过轨道，一个机关终于动起来，都会让我们开心很久。
现在想想，那真是一段很美好的时光。没有太多复杂的目标，只是一起玩、一起想、一起做，在一堆零件里找到最简单、最纯粹的快乐。
时光荏苒，一晃快十年了。那些曾经和我一起玩 LEGO、玩 VEX 的孩子们，也都慢慢长大了。
愿你们，也愿我自己，哪怕走过很多年、经历很多事，心里依然保留那份“玩”的初心——对世界好奇，对动手创造充满热爱，也能一直记得，快乐有时候就藏在最简单的一堆零件里。🎉
Today, watching our camp kids build and play with their VEX Ball Contraption with so much joy, I suddenly thought back to nine years ago.
Back then, I stepped into the world of LEGO Ball Contraptions simply because I wanted to play LEGO with my two children. Just like the kids in camp today, I became completely absorbed in it — fascinated, excited, and happily lost in the process.
Those days were simple. We spread LEGO pieces everywhere, searched through piles of parts, built, tested, rebuilt, and found the purest kind of happiness in those tiny bricks and moving mechanisms.
Time has flown by. Almost ten years have passed in the blink of an eye. The children who once played LEGO or VEX with me have all grown so much.
My wish for all of you is simple: may you always keep that original joy of “playing,” exploring, and creating — just as I still do. 🎉
Learn by reverse-engineering
Over years of teaching, she noticed something important:
When children only follow step-by-step instructions, they can finish a model — but often do not understand why it works.
So she put the manual away.
In her classes, students first observe a finished machine. They play with it, test it, compete with it, and ask: “How does this work?”
Then they build their own version.
A gearbox becomes a beyblade launcher. Students experiment with speed, strength, balance, and design. No two builds look the same — because every child thinks differently.
- 1Understand the mechanism.
- 2Build your own solution.
- 3Learn by thinking, testing, and improving.
Into VEX
As her son grew, he discovered VEX robotics competitions — and she followed his curiosity. She learned the robot, the game, the coding, and the strategy. Helping her own child grew into coaching his friends' team — and seeing robotics turn kids into teammates, problem-solvers, and young leaders.
Going all in
She spent two years taking coding and mechanical-design classes from professional coaches, alongside her own kids. At competitions, parents kept asking the same question: “Can you teach my child too?” Eventually she left her research career to devote herself fully to robotics education — and Burning Gear Robotics was born.
More than competition
Trophies matter — but so does the quiet moment a child finally understands a mechanism, the confidence after many failed tries, the friendships around a robot table, and the courage to try again. That's why we run off-season workshops, community events, beginner classes, and sponsorships.
Robotics belongs to every child curious enough to ask “How does this work?” — and brave enough to build their own answer.