Lego competition teaches teamwork
GTBOM-Michael Martin, Zain Sultan, Joey Li, Andrew Woodard, Nicholas Henstock and Kyle Perkinson; Team E-Force Ryan McKinstry, Kyle McCormick, Jay Marden, Brandon Roberts, Jason Bailey and Cade Walsh; the Synapticons William Phillips, , Matt Bao, Collier Robinson, Lorenzo DiSalvo, Arpan Patal, not pictured: Tyler Magee
We all played with Legos for fun when we were younger, but students at several elementary schools in town won awards for what they were able to build.
Several elementary schools in Madison participated in the FIRST LEGO League competition, Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 at Columbia High School in Huntsville.
The competition drew 64 elementary and middle school teams, ages 9 to 14. Columbia Elementary, West Madison Elementary, Mill Creek Elementary and Rainbow Elementary School all represented Madison at the event.
FFL is designed to get children excited about science and technology — and teach them valuable employment and life skills, according to its mission.
Teams of up to ten children, with one adult coach, participate in the challenge by programming a robot made of Legos to score points in four categories: The Robot Run, Technical Judging, Research Presentation, and Teamwork Judging. They must come up with a solution to a problem the league identified. This year’s theme, Body Forward, had teams find ways to repair injuries, overcome genetic predispositions and maximize the body’s potential.
Columbia had three teams that placed first, third and tenth.
“These students have sacrificed a lot to be a part of this,” said Deborah Medeiros, team sponsor at Columbia. “Their dedication, the work they’ve done, what they’ve learned and what they’ve done with what they’ve learned is real world. I think any adult participating in this would be challenged. They competed against middle schoolers and students who have been doing this for several years. To have this kind of outcome with a pretty new team is pretty amazing.”
Rainbow Elementary School had three teams compete, DOCBOT, The Brain Stormers and The Nerd Birds.
DOCBOT came in third place in both the Robot Performance and Champion’s Award, which is based on all four areas of scoring (teamwork, robot design, research project presentation, and robot performance).
West Madison placed seventh in the Robot Run.
“I had a group of 10 boys, and they just came together as a single team, a single unit, pulled together encouraged each other and learned how to overlook the differences and build on their strengths, it was just wonderful to see how they worked together,” said team sponsor Wendy Tibbs.
The two teams from Mill Creek, Robo-Crew and Robo-Crew2, did not place, but the team’s sponsor, Sharon Harris, said she is still proud of the team’s accomplishments.
They learn a lot and it’s fun to watch,” Harris said. “It’s something that will help them in their professional career. The kids worked really hard to pull it off.”
