1st Place
Pinedale’s First Lego League Robotics team, the Iron Bridge Builders,
|
Awards ceremony
1st Place winners: Pinedale's Iron Bridge Builders robotics team
|
|
Iron Bridge Builders Lego robotics team places 1st in First Lego League Wyoming State championship
by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online!
December 15, 2014
Pinedale’s First Lego League Robotics team, the Iron Bridge Builders, took 1st Place in the First Lego League Wyoming State Championships in Casper, Wyoming December 4th & 5th. The team is composed of nine students from Pinedale Elementary and Middle School. There were 64 teams from across the state of Wyoming who competed in the Championships competition. The team also won the most prestigious award: the Champions award which recognizes a team that embodies the FLL experience, by fully embracing First Lego League (FLL) Core Values while achieving excellence and innovation in both the Robot Game and Project.
The Iron Bridge Builders team includes Pinedale Elementary students: Janae Arne, Holden Saxton, Brooke Noble, Thayne Daniels, Garrett Swain, Zane McClain, Luke Gray and Jackson Harber, and Pinedale Middle School student John Covill.
All teams were judged on their research project presentation which surrounded the theme of "World Class Education." They were judged on teamwork and on their robot design. The final portion of the contest involved three rounds of teams working to solve specific missions with their programmable robot within a 2-minute, 30-second window.
The Iron Bridge Builders team did a research project learning about bridges and stability and strength in a flood zone. A video of their project can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8431vpxb9mo.
The Iron Bridge Builders team has been invited to participate in the North American Tournament of Champions in California and the World Open in Barcelona, Spain. While the expense of the Spain tournament is out of the question for the team, they are planning to fundraise for the tournament of champions in California next year.
The Iron Bridge Builders team was sponsored by Sublette BOCES and Sublette County 4-H. Volunteer coaches were Sandra McLoughlin and Brian Gray. The Lego robotics program is led by Robin Schamber as part of an after-school 4-H and youth development program through the University of Wyoming/Sublette County Extension office. Robotics is funded by grants to the Sublette County 4-H program from Shell and Sublette BOCES in addition to support from Sublette County. The trip to Casper was funded by both of those grants. The robotics program was started in Sublette County 4-H in 2008 thanks to initial grants from EnCana and Shell that enabled the purchase of robotics equipment and supplies.
The Pinedale Middle School team, Robo Nerds also competed in the competition and placed 12th of 64 in robot performance. Students in this team are Liam and Ceilie Falon, Jacob and Makenzie Johnson, Timmy Hosler and Grant Fornstrom. This team researched and presented on how to teach robotics. Their presentation can be viewed online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnCB6556kMs.
FLL is a robotics program for 9 to 14 year olds which is designed to get children excited about science and technology and teach them employment and life skills. Teams are comprised of up to ten children with at least one adult coach. They can also be associated with a school, pre-existing club or organization, homeschooled, or just be a group of friends who wish to do the challenge for fun.
|
