By Cari Jenkins
On December 6, 2015, First Lego League (FLL) teams gathered at the Evergreen Space Museum in McMinnville for a Regional FLL Qualifying Tournament. Newport’s Electrified LEGOS team was in attendance, ready to compete with their robot. This year, the team was made up of eight team members ranging from 4th to 7th grade. Four were returning members from last year’s SNL-Super Ninja Legends team, and four were new members to FLL.
By the end of the day, the Electrified LEGOS team learned that they were one of the lucky teams chosen to compete in the FLL State Championships to be held on January in Hillsboro.
Electrified LEGOS
The team has been meeting at least weekly since late August to complete this year’s FLL Challenge – “Trash Trek”. Team members partnered with Thompson Sanitary, County Waste, Master Composter SeaHart Elan and Sam Case Elementary School to figure out a way to reduce the amount of food waste being thrown into the landfill from the school. The team did a waste audit at Sam Case for two days to know how much was being thrown away and then presented their findings to the Lincoln County School Board and Sam Case administration and staff. On top of the challenge research, the team also used a LEGO EV3 robotics kit to design, build and program a robot, which completes as many missions as possible on a 4-foot by 8-foot playing field.
As part of the tournaments the team must present their robot and programs for judging, present their food waste findings to another team of judges explaining why they chose to help solve this issue, show their teamwork skills to yet another team of judges using the FLL Core Values, and then compete with their robot in three different competition rounds.
Electrified LEGOS is sponsored by Lincoln County 4-H and HC Networks. Team members include Reegan Jenkins, Katie Hartsell, Marcus Lehrer, Kaden Raever, Ella Jenkins, Charlotte Gardner, Gracie Ison, and Merak Krutzikowsky. They will be competing at the State Competition during the weekend of January 9th and 10th.
A list of coastal teams competing in December’s FLL Qualifying Tournaments:
Warrenton
F1shSt1ckz from Warrenton Grade School
V.I.G. 2 from Wood Middle School
What? from Wood Middle School
Fire Breathing Toasters from Wood Middle School
Error Code 404 from Wood Middle School
Seaside
Broadway Sharks from Broadway Middle School
BMS Plankton from Broadway Middle School
Jewell
Bluejay Bricks from Jewell School District
Newport
Electrified LEGOS from Lincoln County 4-H and HC
RoboDragons from Newport Recreation Center
Florence
Paper-cut Recycling from Siuslaw Middle School
Team K.L.A.P. from Siuslaw Middle School
Team Paper Shredders
Team Smarter Beaches!
Siuslaw Geek Squad
Coos Bay
Nightmare Kitty from Millicoma Intermediate School
OMG Ort Minimizing Gypsies from Sunset Middle School – read more
Recycling Electronics from Sunset Middle School
