Yes, they’re part of the F.I.R.S.T. Lego League, but they want you to know it’s not what you think.
“People think we’re playing with Legos all day. We’re not playing with Legos. It’s presenting, computers, engineering…,” Cedar Crest Academy student and Lego League member Kelly Peters clarified.
“It’s a good experience. You get to learn a lot more about a subject. It really makes you think,” Lauren Jbara added.
“It’s interesting. It makes you smarter,” Analicia Honkanen noted.
And after eight weeks of preparation, the fifth and sixth graders, in two teams dubbed Nitro and Hedgehogs, took top honors out of 40 teams competing Saturday, Nov. 15 at White Lake Middle School. The Cedar Crest kids, who also won for creative presentation, will now be heading to the state tournament.
“We’re all pretty excited about this opportunity,” team leader Jenny Healy said. “There are only 10 going to state. It is quite an honor.”
Each year the Lego League creates a challenge for students to solve through the use of robotics construction, programming, research and innovative problem solving techniques. Students create a question and solve it through research and the development of robotics.
This year’s competition was Mission Mars. And the Cedar Crest teams chose to center around the exploration of rock, soil and ice on the planet.
The students are broken up into groups with specific jobs like researching and preparing Powerpoint presentation or building and programming Lego robots to perform specific “missions.”
“We stay up late and work really hard,” Rachel Hanson admitted.
But they seem to thrive on that hard work.
Ask team members what their favorite thing is about the Lego League and the answers vary.
Christopher Schulte said, “My favorite thing is constructing.”
“I like competition,” Tyler Kieras said.
“My favorite thing is programming,” David Risov added.
No matter what their particular point of interest, they all agree Lego League is fun.
“It’s so much fun because we’re working with friends. And we’re all best friends,” Sarah Novotney said.
For more information on Lego League, visit www.firstlegoleague.org.