Independence Elementary robotics team NASA won the Championship Award at the FIRST Lego League robotics qualifier in Armada, Nov. 17, earning a place at the state competition on Dec. 15.
The award recognized the team’s core values, excellence, and innovation in their projects with this year’s theme, “Into Orbit.” This season, they were given three minutes to build a prototype rocket out of Legos and explain the functions of what they built.
“The team really excelled in this area,” said coach Ellen McNaughton.
In another part of the competition, the boys built and wrote programs for a Lego Mindstorm robot to complete as many challenges as possible in 2 minutes, 30 seconds. The boys came in second place out of the 20 teams in this area, McNaughton said.
The boys’ research project was on ways to create energy and grow food using human waste. They presented their prototype of a toilet that transfers waste into energy bricks for fertilizer. They presented their solution in a skit and then presented the diagram of their prototype to the judges.
“They received very high marks in this area as well,” McNaughton said.