Iroquois MS Competes in First Lego League

On November 17th, 2018, seven sixth grade students from Iroquois Middle School were the first students to ever represent Iroquois at a First Lego League (FLL) competition.  The regional competition for Buffalo area schools took place at the Nichols School.  Our entry fee for the competition was covered thanks to a generous donation from Dr. Michelle Kavanaugh, director of the WNY STEM Hub.  We were very appreciative of the change to compete.  Mrs. Ferger and I had a great time advising this wonderful team!

There was plenty of planning and preparation leading up to the competition.  We held informational sessions about FLL during lunches.  Interested students needed to apply by providing a parent signature and also a paragraph explaining why they want to join the team.  We stressed that FLL isn't a club in the traditional sense; instead, it requires a high level of commitment.  Once the team was selected, we met for 1.5 hour meetings 14 times leading up to the competition.

For those unfamiliar with FLL, it is a three part competition.  The spontaneous "Core Values" section assesses how well team members work together as a group in order to perform a specific task (mainly a team building activity).  Team members must then discuss how the Core Values of Lego League can be applied to school and other settings.  The Core Values of Lego League are as follows:

We are a team.

We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.

We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.

We honor the spirit of friendly competition.

What we discover is more important than what we win.

We share our experiences with others.

We display Gracious Professionalism^® and Coopertition^® in everything we do.

We have FUN!

- See more at: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/mission/corevalues#sthash.cVFMw5M0.dpuf

We are a team.

We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.

We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.

We honor the spirit of friendly competition.

What we discover is more important than what we win.

We share our experiences with others.

We display Gracious Professionalism^® and Coopertition^® in everything we do.

We have FUN!

- See more at: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/mission/corevalues#sthash.cVFMw5M0.dpu

We are a team.

We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.

We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.

We honor the spirit of friendly competition.

What we discover is more important than what we win.

We share our experiences with others.

We display Gracious Professionalism^® and Coopertition^® in everything we do.

We have FUN!

- See more at: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/mission/corevalues#sthash.cVFMw5M0.dpuf

- Discovery: We explore new skills and ideas.
- Innovation: We use creativity and persistence to solve problems.
- Impact: We apply what we learned to improve the world.
- Inclusion: We respect each other and embrace our differences.
- Teamwork: We are stronger when we work together.

Practicing Core Values challenges during a team meeting.

Core Values practice was a success!

The "Project" section is more of a traditional science project.  Students are given a topic to research first.  This year, the theme was "Into Orbit" and teams were challenged to find a way to improve the lives of astronauts.  The team shares their innovation with a group of people who can benefit from their research.  They then must create a short presentation to show the judges what they learned through the research process.

The team decided to tackle the problem of space trash as the basis of their project.  Through research, they learned that space trash can threaten the safety of astronauts because it could tear a hole in their spacecrafts or spacesuits.  In order to work on an innovative solution to this problem, they contacted an expert.  One of our students has an uncle that works as a contract engineer through NASA!  Mr. Jarrod Bleckinger, an Iroquois graduate, was happy to share his outer space expertise through a Skype visit with our team.

Skyping with engineer Jarrod Bleckinger.

Team members prepared great questions for our Skype visit.

After consulting with Mr. Bleckinger, the team decided that creating solar powered lasers would be the best way to zap space trash.  They created a project board to present their innovative solution, and then prepared a skit to share their findings with the FLL judges.

The team prepared an informative display about their project.

Last but not least is the "Robotics" component.  Students are honing their computer programming skills in order to train a robot to complete missions.  Each mission is worth a predetermined amount of points, so the team that accumulates the most points will win this section of the competition.  This part of the competition requires a lot of trial and error; it is difficult to get the robot's programming just right in order to complete the missions.

The programming for each mission was done on a computer.

Attachments and adjustments were made to the robot prior to competition.

There were many missions the teams could choose to complete.

The team preps the robot for a round of competition.

During the competition, it was very exciting when our team's robot was able to successfully complete three missions!  This was the best our robot had ever performed.

Although no awards were won by Iroquois this year, it was a great season of teamwork, friendship, and exploration of real world science and engineering.  Iroquois hopes to be back at Nichols School again next year for another competition.  In the meantime, some of this year's Lego League participants are keeping their robotics and science skills sharp by participating in the middle school's Bright Minds Club and STREAM class opportunities.  Mrs. Ferger and I will be exploring ways to make FLL bigger and better next year!

Iroquois First Lego League Team 2018