Skip to content

Table of Contents

The Deep Run High School gym was the site of a dance party Saturday.

Elementary and middle school students held hands and spun around in a giant circle, wearing multicolored T-shirts and costume hats. One student was break-dancing in the center, while another group mooed like cows. Younger siblings, coaches, and even parents were participating, too.

Meanwhile, in another room, a panel of judges deliberated about what they’d seen earlier in the day: Robots, coded by the students, completing complicated tasks on a course, and science projects, constructed during the course of months, that attempted to solve the same problems real engineers were tackling.

The judges, many of whom were students themselves, were almost ready to present the winners of the FIRST Lego League robotics tournament.

The FLL tournament featured robotics teams composed of students from local middle and high schools, as well as community teams (often students from schools that don’t have their own robotics teams) with similarly-aged students.

Student teams competed in two different areas – a robotics course in which Lego robots had to be programmed to do certain tasks, and a science project that solved a specific problem in the energy sector. Lego robots are designed and pre-programmed by the student teams to go through a specific course, accomplish certain tasks, and make it to the finish line without going off-track.

Caroline, 10, of the “Lego My Eggo Cows” community team, said that the robot usually takes much longer to make than the science project.

“It was a lot of programming,” Caroline said. “We also had to work on the wheels and clean them with erasers. We had a lot of fun.”

Teams competed in two age divisions, with one team from each division earning the championship and several teams from each division being chosen to advance to state-level competitions.

The Electro Vibes, a team from the all-girls St. Catherine’s School, won the first division. Bob’s Bricks, a two-person community team of best friends, won the second division.

Though the robotics courses were the same for all teams, the projects were very different. One group built a model of a wind turbine that repels birds with color and sound, while another made a prototype for electricity-generating sneakers. Teams set up their presentation boards in the hallways outside the gym (where the robotics courses were being judged), turning the area into a miniature science fair.

Ellen O’Leary, a team coach and mother of five, believes the competition makes a number of positive effects on the kids who participate.

“I think they get a lot of life skills from it,” said O’Leary, whose own children are all involved in robotics. “A lot of teamwork – which translates very well to school and being on sports teams. And also perseverance. The robot doesn’t work well the first time – it never does. You have to refine it, work on it, and keep going until it’s how you want it.”

About 30 of the 100 or so members of Deep Run High School’s robotics team, Blue Cheese, volunteered at the tournament, some acting as referees or judges. Some adult sponsors assisted, as well. Most volunteers return to these tournaments year after year.

“We actually have a really solid base of returning volunteers each year,” said Wendy Newton, the tournament director. “We have a lot of alumni from our high school team, and other people that have been volunteering with FIRST Lego League for years. I think we had only one judge who we had not worked with before.”

(Anya Sczerzenie/Henrico Citizen)

Blue Cheese even brought its own robot to play basketball with the younger students. The robot was built for a competition and was programmed to launch a ball into a goal. High school competition robots are much larger than lego robots and can weigh as much as 120 pounds.

In addition to their own robotics competitions, Blue Cheese participates in a wide variety of advocacy and outreach efforts targeted at younger students. The team hosts public STEM demonstrations at schools, libraries, and shopping malls; mentors younger students; hosts summer camps; and even petitions legislators for STEM funding in economically disadvantaged schools.

While the majority of students competing in FLL are from more economically privileged areas, Blue Cheese member Kiran Sabharwal said that their ultimate goal is to open up this opportunity to more students.

“Our goal with advocacy is to try to increase the number of kids that are involved in activities like this,” said Sabharwal, who is the team’s advocacy lead. “Our goal is to create a world where as many kids as want to participate can, because it’s really a great program.”

Not only does the First Lego League program teach kids scientific skills, Sabharwal said, but it also teaches them interpersonal skills like teamwork.

“They are learning things like programming, how to build a robot, how to talk to experts, how to research in real-world ways,” Sabharwal said, “and on top of that, kids are learning the core values – how to work as a team, how to include everyone, things like fun and discovery and making an impact in the world.”

* * *

Anya Sczerzenie is the Henrico Citizen’s education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar. Sign up here for her free weekly education newsletter.