Not only are student robotics teams becoming more common in our local schools, but a lot of them are also having a good share of success.
In the past week teams from Gale Elementary in Galesburg, Abingdon-Avon and Knox County 4-H have qualified for state competitions.
A-Town has the newest team with the Twisterbots just forming over the summer, but this won’t be the first trip to state for the Knox County Robostorm or the Gale Cougarbots.
One of the Twisterbots’ coaches Kaiti Burgess says the students have to use coding, critical thinking skills, and teamwork, and there’s often a buzz on competition days.
“It feels like a sporting event. There’s cheering, there’s loud music, and there’s a lot of adrenaline and energy. It’s just a really cool thing to promote that kid who [may not be gifted] in sports but it’s still this really cool and exciting thing for them to do.”
The objective of the competitions according to the First Lego League website is to make children enthusiastic about science and technology, equip the participants with the idea of team spirit, and to encourage children to solve complex tasks in a creative way.
Teams are also judged on a project that’s connected to the yearly topic they would like to research.
For example, the Gale Cougarbots’ research project involved using sunflowers as biodiesel fuel, and the Twisterbots revolved around turning the Abingdon pottery into a greenhouse.
Burgess also says that in addition students learning STEM concepts and teamwork they’re also improving their communication skills.
“It’s some presentation skills that are not often practiced and they have to go up there — we can’t prompt them at all. They just have to start talking about this thing and explain it in an educated way.”
A typical FLL competition has a few portions; the robot game, the research project, presenting the robot design and talking to the judges about how their team incorporates the First organization’s core values.
The core values are discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun.
Silas Willard Elementary’s Robotics team was also awarded a Judges’ Choice trophy for their work last weekend on the research presentation, creative programming of their robot and good sportsmanship
