EVEN in the Valley of Tech's Delight, only one in five girls wants to pursue a career in technology, according to a new survey of eighth and 11th grade students. Among ethnic groups, only Asian students in any sizable number are interested in high-tech jobs.

Here are two people whose efforts give hope that those numbers, and students' aspirations, will be raised. One is Lily Knight, a computer lab assistant and parent volunteer at Lowell Elementary School in downtown San Jose. The other is Devin Blizzard, principal of Los Alamitos Elementary. He's also director of robotics for San Jose Unified School District, an honorific title for a non-paying job that's his consuming passion.

Robotics can become that -- for principals, for parent volunteers, and, more importantly, for children. Getting kids involved in robotics competitions -- giving them the pleasure and challenge of building smart machines out of everyday LEGOs -- is one way to counter the lack of interest in science and technology that's holding back children in Silicon Valley.

Robotics may be the cheapest and smartest investment schools can make in an extracurricular program. It's an answer to Joint Venture: Silicon Valley's question: How can we make technology seem cool?

Blizzard calls robotics' hands-on learning the ``fourth R'' of education. Robotics mirrors real-life and workplace challenges. It puts the scientific method into action. It teaches teamwork to boys and leadership to girls. It can light a spark for students who are doers but not good readers. Most of all, it's fun.

I've seen the benefits of robotics at Hacienda, the San Jose Unified elementary school my daughter attends. Blizzard has seen the impact robotics has had on his school, where girls make up half of the 13 teams. And now, with Superintendent Linda Murray's support, he's beginning to see the impact on the district.

Three years ago, Los Alamitos was the only San Jose Unified school in the national LEGO League competitions. Last year, 14 elementary and middle schools had 62 teams. No other district in California has as much participation.

Not surprisingly, the teams have been mainly in Willow Glen and Almaden Valley schools, wealthier parts of the district. Parents with jobs as engineers have been the coaches; their employers have underwritten the cost.

The challenge -- one that Blizzard is ready to take on -- is to see that robotics spreads to all parts of the sprawling district, so minority and poor kids can be exposed to it.

That's where Lily Knight comes in. With Blizzard's encouragement, she coached the first-year team at Lowell, a largely Latino and Asian school near San Jose State.

It was daunting, at first, to go it alone: digesting the arcane rules of the LEGO League; helping her son and four other fifth graders build a robot capable of doing up to a dozen tasks; learning the computer program that runs the robot; finding time to coach.

Two Bellarmine Prep students volunteered to help the kids with the design. In the end, her team of three boys and two girls did fine, even winning a special commendation at the district competition.

Every district could use an inspired leader like Blizzard; every school needs a risk-taking, committed parent like Knight. But they, in turn, could use help from a valley rich in resources: engineers and computer programmers to serve as mentors; foundations and corporations to underwrite the costs; the Tech Museum, which sponsors its own robotics challenge, to lend its support.

As Knight says, ``Any child who likes playing with LEGOs can succeed in robotics.'' It's parents and principals who need to be coaxed along.