Seven Independence Elementary students spent the fall working hard to complete tasks in the area of research and robot programming and design for FLL (First Lego League).
They competed in an all day tournament at the Detroit Science Center, Nov. 11. There were 22 teams present and the top six teams qualified to move on to the State Championship tournament. The IE team was one of the top six teams and is competing at the state level in December. They also were awarded the Mechanical Design Award for the best robot design.
Team members are Evan Duty, Evan Koral, Jason Legg, Boone McNaughton, Etienne Mohr, David Richardson, and Vaughn Shires, with help from Clarkston High School Team RUSH mentors Austin Schmitz and Sydney Havens, and coaches Ellen McNaughton and Brad Shires.
“The boys are very excited and it is a big accomplishment,” McNaughton said.
FIRST Lego League teams grades 4-8 research real problems such as food safety, recycling, energy, etc., and are challenged to develop a solution. The theme this year was Hydrodynamics. They also must design, build, program a robot using Lego Mindstorms, then compete on a table-top playing field.