Lego League
2016 Animal Allies Lego Robotics Challenge Regional Competition
Congratulations to Marnie Simons Elementary First Lego League Teams!
Marnie Simons Elementary students took on the ultimate engineering challenge: design, build and program a robot capable of executing a series of specific tasks. As members of the FIRST LEGO League, the students would then put their problem solving skills to the test in the worldwide 2016 Animal Allies Lego Robotics challenge.
Over 200 Southwest Iowa youth participated in the 2016 Animal Allies Lego Robotics Challenge regional competition on Saturday, Dec. 3. This Council Bluffs event was one of 14 Iowa Regional Qualifier FIRST LEGO League Robotics events hosted across the state. Hosted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, the Council Bluffs FLL qualifying tournament was held at Lewis Central Middle School.
Two Marnie Simons Elementary 4th and 5th grade teams competed. The Electro Bots; Ava Osborn, Emmalee Barrett, Kennedy Shull, Lilly Peters, Kylee Foster, and Hermione Harris. The Legend Bots; Gabe Richardson, Ian Thompson, Seth Gubser, Randa Culley, Izaiah Flowers, Akaisha McQuistion, Abrum Morales- Llan and Ethan Morales-Llan. The 2 teams have been working diligently after school for 10 weeks on the robots and research presentations.
The competition is judged in five areas – research and presentation, robot performance, technical mechanics of the robot’s construction, teamwork and gracious professionalism. The highest honor is awarded to the team that best exemplifies the spirit and values of the program. The Electro Bots won highest honor with their research and project presentation that focused on being animal allies with the birds that live in Hamburg, Iowa.
Medals were awarded to participants and trophies awarded to Iowa FLL Championship qualifying teams and top teams in the four core areas of Robot Performance, Core Values/Teamwork, Robot Design and Research Project Presentations. Legend Bots came in 2nd place for Core Values.
Julia Shull, a Lego League team coach stated, “The students learn so much from being part of Lego League. They learn that anything worth building is worth building more than once. There is a great deal of trial and error during this process, and students can become very frustrated. The robot goes through multiple design changes and reprogramming, which really helps students learn how to communicate and support their suggestions. We are very proud of both the teams for their hard work and commitment to the club." Lego League is an after school program offered at Marnie Simons Elementary, open to 4th – 8th graders.
