Visiting LEGOLAND, the ultimate playground for
children and adults, is always a exciting for children; now imagine the thrill
of competing in a First LEGO League (“FLL”) Cup tournament at LEGOLAND.
During the past month St. Michael’s “Team
Archangel” (8 students and 3 Coaches) have been diligently working to prepare
for the FLL competition that occurred this past Saturday at LEGOLAND.
Over the weekend 128 teams, from all over Southern
California and neighboring states competed in two events, the Robot Challenge
and Core Values Team Work. These 128
teams were divided into four groups of 32.
The top three teams in each group medaled.
Team Archangel was placed in the first group of
32, starting our day at 7 AM and ending at 3 PM on Saturday. After checking in and setting up our robot
and supplies in our assigned pit, the anxiety level and excitement began to
increase exponentially. But, while running
warm-ups on the practice table our robot began to misbehave. Were the 3-4 meetings a week and extended
hours preparing for the competition going to crash from the start? Was all
the hard work for naught? The first impediment
was quickly resolved by determining that the mission mats were becoming wavy
due to the high ambient moisture levels.
Practice was aborted until the waviness could be resolved, but
apprehension had crept in.
The Robot Challenge had three rounds. Our team had three groups of two, thus each round
would have a different pair of students. Round one started with a bang. We scored 75 points, which equaled our best
from the November competition. After a
group huddle, we had a game plan for round two that could increase our score
from 75 to 120 points. Unbelievably, we
not only reached 120 points but scored 150 points! If that was not enough excitement, at one
point we were in second place. The
excitement continued into round three, but our attempt to score 200 points
ended when a motor failed during the round. Still, we ended the morning in sixth place.
In only our second year, we were performing at
a level competitive with the experienced teams.
While we did not quite make top three for a medal, the team was deservedly
on cloud nine with their performance. More
importantly, while designing, building and programming robots, our students
learned skills that will be carried with them throughout life.
“FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL®) introduces young people, ages 9 to 14* (grades 4-8), to the fun and excitement of science and technology while building self-confidence, knowledge, and valuable career and life skills. FLL challenges kids to think like scientists and engineers. Alongside adult Mentors, FLL teams solve problems using engineering concepts, presentation techniques, and robots.”
A win/win for
all.
Terri I
Chapman
Middle School
Math Teacher
Math Chairman
No comments:
Post a Comment