Gainesville Exploration Academy and Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy recently won awards in the Regional First LEGO League Robotics Competition in Winder.
First LEGO League has released a real-world based Challenge since 1998 where teams of up to 10 students compete in three areas: the Robot Run, the Innovation Project, and the Core Values. For the competition, teams program robots and use LEGOs to build projects and solve problems.
Both teams won awards for the Core Values portion in their tournament categories. This award shows that teams can compete in the competition while expressing discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and most importantly, fun.
"I feel like being in the competition,” said Maddux Rifenburg, a member of the Enota team. “It was great bonding time because we were with each other, and we all had the same problems, so we could all just work it out together and be able to understand what was going on."
This year's challenge, City Shaper, had a focus on solving a problem in the community in order to make a more sustainable future.
Enota MI Academy decided to focus their project on renovating an old building in downtown Gainesville, while Gainesville Exploration Academy chose to repurpose unused land on school grounds.
"They chose to renovate the old post office on Green Street, and they chose to make it into a gym and a food market," Meredith Braham, coach for the Enota team, said. "So the judges are looking for how creative they are in their problem-solving and how innovative is their solution."
On the day of the competition, the teams had four tries to complete as many missions with their robot as they could in two and a half minutes.
"The nerve-racking part about the competition is when you're actually under pressure like with the clock and the ticking with Robot Run because you don't know if you're going to mess up or what, and you really want to go on to the next competition," said Ricky Rivera, a member of the Gainesville team.
Every team member from both teams had a part in building either part for their actual robot or different parts of the robot's mission.
"The robot was the hardest part because we had to measure the wires and [connect] them, and I'm pretty sure the hardest part of robotics is the programming," said Gainesville member Emmanuel Isidro.
For all teams in the competition, the coaches are considered facilitators since the teams compete without the coaches being involved in the actual competition
“The kids do everything on their own,” Rebekah Bowen, a coach with the Gainesville team, said. “They come up with their project themselves. They work together. They come up with their posters. They did the robot. We learned a lot, and I think the kids had a great time, and that was really our purpose."
Most of the team members joined their robotics teams because of their love of LEGOS and their eagerness to learn more about robotics.
"I've always wanted to be an engineer when I grow up, so LEGO robotics is kind of almost like engineering a bit because you program a robot, and you can build stuff with LEGOs," Enota team member Elizabeth Reed said.
The teams from both schools have several members who will be graduating to middle school and will no longer be on the team. Members staying with the team again next year are most excited about having a new Challenge and getting to work with new members.
"I liked learning how to program because next year when they go to middle school, I'll be able to teach [others] how to program," said Riley Lathem, a member of the Gainesville team.
