The revolution will not be televised.

It will be projected onto a wall via a next-generation learning technology called “Safety Learning.”

Safety Learning is one part iPad, one part scanner and one part projector. It comes with beefy security features such as voice recognition and content control.

The scanner allows users to scan and upload entire books to its hard drive — perhaps the final death knell for print publishing as it will be near impossible to prevent book pirating — and the projector allows users to project their work onto a wall for mass viewing.

The revolution will have to wait however, because Safety Learning is still just a prototype (idea, really) made of Legos. And its inventor is in the third grade.

The inventor, Logan Gaulin-Rainville, is one of three students (grades 1-3) in teacher Andrew Nelson’s First Junior Lego League at West Hills STEM Academy.

“My class is less robotics and more teamwork,” Nelson said. “I like to think my group is the AAA development league to (Valerie) Sandell’s major league team.”

Lego Robotics

Kieran, a fifith-grader at STEM, adds spacers the robot’s axels. Photo by Peter O’Cain

Sandell teaches at STEM, too. She runs the 4-7 grade group, officially called FIRST Lego League but better known as Lego Robotics, in which students build basic robots with – you guessed it – Legos.

A fifth-grader named Kieran has discarded a clunky pair of black tires and is instead carefully tweaking the undercarriage of his robot.

“They noticed when they put the big wheel on it the axle wasn’t supporting it so they’re putting spacers on to support the wheel,” said Candie Howie, a volunteer and mother of one of the students.

Sandell’s group took a break in December after a competition. They restarted Feb. 19 with 13 students. They’re broken into four groups, trying to solve problems similar to Kieran’s.

The classroom is a frenzy of sweatshirts, tan pants and shoes shuffling on concrete.

Today, the focus is programming. The students have to program the robots to do the simplest of movements: how far to move, how fast, when to turn and how many degrees to rotate when turning.

For seventh-grader Alaura, Lego Robotics offers her a chance to continue

learning about her interests.

“I like technology so this is the best class for it,” she said.

Gabriella, fourth grade, is beginning to see things Alaura’s way.

“I’m starting to love programming,” she said.

Around 4:45 p.m., Sandell told told the kids to put everything away. But Kieran is still trying to connect the brain to the body. He’s fidgeting with thin black connectors, hoping for life.

It was his first day in Lego Robotics. He appears hooked, but he’s not sure why.

“I don’t know but I like it,” he said.

Lego Fundamentals

From left: Andrew Nelson, Jazmyn White and Logan Gaulin-Rainville. Photo by Peter O’Cain

Nelson’s class is allotted for six students, but it’s dwindled down to three. One is absent today, so it’s just Gaulin-Rainville and Jazmyn White, a second grader.

“It’s pretty fun. We practice our speech skills and our listening skills,” Nelson said. “But it’s also pretty relaxed because it’s after school.”

The theme for the course this year is to design a technology to help in the classroom. Nelson asks them to present their prototypes.

Gaulin-Rainville went first. He has curly dirty blonde hair and rectangular wireframe glasses. He holds up Safety Learning. Red blocks stacked on yellow blocks border a flat black piece.

“It looks like a tiki mask,” Gaulin-Rainville said.

He explained that the scanner will save book space in classrooms and the projector will be help teachers.

“It’s good for learning and when a teacher calls on you you can show it,” Gaulin-Rainville said.

Nelson agreed. His students have tablets and he has to go to them whenever he wants to see their work, he said. Safety Learning would allow him to show all his critiques to the class.

White goes next. She has frizzy brown hair that’s struggling to remain tied in a bun and brown eyes as big as Jawbreakers.

Her design is a multi-colored rectangle about the size of a calculator called Flash Learning.

It allows students to do classwork and upload books. White said she’d want adventure series “Junie B. Jones” on hers.

Flash Learning is unique because its battery life is directly related to the user’s work proficiency.

“If you get whatever you’re doing right, the power goes up,” White said. “If you get it wrong, the power goes down.”

Dreaming up the future is what the kids like about Nelson’s class.

“I get to use my imagination,” Gaulin-Rainville said. “And when I use my imagination anything is possible.”