Wildwood sent two teams to the FLL Lego Robotics Qualifying Tournament in Agawam on Saturday. The Girls team were the SNAP O's and the Boys team the BORFFs (Building Over-the-top Robots For Fun!)
We had some fantastic results. The SNAP O's came in 8th place in the Robot matches and were one of 5 teams that qualified for the State Competition at WPI in Worcester this coming weekend. The Girls Snap O team also won a trophy for Strategy and Innovation. The BORFFs finished respectably in 17th place out of 24 which was still not bad for a rookie team.
Everybody showed great team spirit and sportsmanship slapping hands of the winning teams and cheering like crazy the whole time.
Everybody showed great team spirit and sportsmanship slapping hands of the winning teams and cheering like crazy the whole time.
If you want to see what it's like - check out this video to see the Girls' Team's first match! http://youtu.be/xlO-A4T0BDo
These teams worked hard all fall and really come together as a team. They learned to
build a Lego robot and program it to run "missions" on a 4
x 8 feet Lego Competition mat - which involved using a robot to lift
Lego switches, capture and retrieve objects, place objects in a specific
location, toss a ball, and go up a ramp. This year's FLL theme
is Senior Solutions - so the kids also had to partner up with a
senior, identify an issue affecting seniors, do research, and propose a
solution. Lucas' McCallum's grandparents graciously agreed to be the
Senior Partner for both teams, and the kids learned about a variety of issues
affecting seniors from them.
The Girls' Team - the Snap-O's -
chose to address the issue of remembering when to take which pills. They
did research on existing solutions, and came up with a novel solution of the
Pill Watch - a fashionable wristband that contains compartments for pills
connected to a timer (like a watch). The compartments will flash with
alarms and light reminders to let the senior know which compartment to open and which pill to take at the appropriate time. They presented their
proposed solution to the seniors at the Arbors Assisted Living Center in
Amherst for feedback. The seniors were very excited about the Pill Watch,
and wanted to know when it would be available, but also stipulated that they
wouldn't pay more than $20 for such a device! The Girls' team presented
their issue, research, and solution in the form of a skit to the judges at the
FLL competition.
The Boys' Team- the Borffs-Focused on solving a way to get a wheel chair into a vehicle when a Senior Citizen is not able or strong enough to lift the chair into a vehicle. The Boy' team presented their issue, research, and solution in the form of a skit to the judges at the FLL competition.
The Snap-O's and the BORFFs had a
great time at the competition as rookie teams. In the morning, they
competed with their robots in 5 different matches, where only the highest
score counted. In the afternoon, every team was included in the
Elimination Tournament, which was a second, different and separate competition
for the robots. They were also judged for Robotics, Project, and Core
Values in three different Judged Sessions. They got to meet kids from 24
teams in Agawam (4 of them from Amherst!)
The Girls' team won a Golden Ticket
to the State Finals in Worcester on Saturday December 15th! Furthermore,
they won the Strategy and Innovation Award for their robot! This
is a very impressive accomplishment for a rookie team. More importantly,
the girls, who mostly joined the Club/Team "because my friends are
joining" have really discovered new abilities and confidence within
themselves to build and program.
Financially, the Lego Team's costs of
$750 (registration for 2 teams) plus more has been supported by team parents'
donations, an enormously successful bakesale on Election Day (thanks to Cathy
Luna for organizing!), and a PGO minigrant of $200.
None of this could have happened without Ms. Kathryn
Runyan, our computer teacher (or whatever her actual title is, Tracy?).
She has been instrumental in creating both the Lego Club (for everyone) and the
two Lego teams (for the kids who also committed to extra work and the research
project). She coached the Boy's team along with Charlie Schweik.
She's co-coached the Girls' Team along with Tracy Hightower, Eric Knapp, and
Vivian Liu. She has dedicated her time after school every Thursday, and
for a couple of hours every weekend since September to the Lego Club and
Team. In the past month her time commitment to the Teams have
been even higher. She arranged rides for every child who needed
one so that everyone who wanted to be part of the Lego Club or Team could
attend meetings. We cannot thank her enough for her dedication to
promoting STEM - science, technology, engineering and math - at Wildwood.
