Robotics Teams Prepare for Competition

Our SAA-SDS Robotics Team members are hard at work preparing for the First® Lego® League (FLL) competition of the year on April 10.  This year St. Agnes and St. Dominic are fielding three robotics teams, including an SDS team with seven members, an SAA Lower School team with ten members, and a Junior High team with four members.

Led by SDS 4^thgrade teacher Marshall Ogier and SAA 4^thgrade teacher Katie Christian, with assistance from Lower School Science Teacher Jane Grafton, this is the third year our Stars and Suns are competing.

The lego league competition is more than just traditional robot design and coding.  The theme for this year’s competition is RePlay, challenging the Lego Leaguers to come up with solutions to get people moving and connected.

“The First Lego League does a beautiful job of intertwining engineering and world awareness,” said Mrs. Grafton. “With the practical, fun, and interactive approach of FLL, our students can gain confidence in themselves to be movers and shakers in years to come.”

To participate students had to apply and submit a short essay explaining why they would like to join the team.

“I joined the Robotics Team because I really like technology and I wanted to be able to learn more about it. I was really interested in the robots moving, and now we are programming them to move,” said Frankie Giardino, SDS 4^thgrade.

According to Mrs. Christian, selecting the team members for 20-21 was a challenge. “In fact, we had to use their written applications to narrow down a team this year because the girls' interest in robotics is so high at this point.” she said.

During competition FLL judges review the team’s submissions in three areas: the Core Values of FLL (discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun), the Innovation Project and robot design and task completion.  Due to continuing COVID-19 restrictions, competitions will be held virtually, which has presented quite a few challenges for the teams and their sponsors. Mrs. Christian noted, however, that the students have figured out how to overcome the rough spots. “I am most proud of their troubleshooting and perseverance through this tricky time of virtual meetings and limited access to each other in person,” she said.

Last Saturday, March 6, the teams participated in a practice competition. Each team worked collaboratively to submit videos of their projects. The teams then met virtually with First FLL judges who reviewed their videos and submitted feedback, so the teams would know areas to work on leading up to the actual competition.

“The biggest takeaways for the students are that they can use engineering and science to help solve real world problems and that they can be activists in their community,” said Mr. Ogier.