Seven students from Alan Shawn Feinstein Middle School were recognized for their programming skills when they competed in the 12th Annual FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournament on Jan. 12.
Feinstein Einsteins participated in the event that was held at Roger Williams University's Recreation Center along with other Rhode Island students ages 9-14 from public, private, parochial and home schools. Teams of students can be sponsored by schools, home school families or associations, churches, after-school clubs, scouts, 4H and neighborhood groups.
The FIRST LEGO League program actively engages nearly 500 RI students every year in designing, building and programming a robot to compete for points on a game table at the annual competition. Each year, the students are given a new theme to work with that is tied to a research project. According to FIRST LEGO League, the project increases scientific literacy by challenging the kids to understand the problems and to create their own solutions. This year’s annual theme was "Senior Solutions", which encompasses the use of science, technology and engineering to help people stay active and healthy as they age.
After nearly two months of building a robot, programming it to move without the use of a remote control and creating a research project, teams across the state competed in December's qualifying tournaments where their robots and projects are evaluated by teams of science, technology, engineering and math professionals. 40 teams advanced to the State Championship.
Feinstein Einsteins had been meeting after school as a group to work on their project under the guidance of coaches Rebecca Henderson and Scot Tennent.
During the five-hour competition on Saturday, teams presented their research projects, participated in a Core Values activity to demonstrate their skills and strategies, presented their robot designs and programming techniques to judges and competed in The Robot Game consisting of three 2.5-minute rounds of solving design and programming challenges.
Following the competition, judges announced the winners and presented a number of awards for various categories including design, research, presentation, teamwork, strategy and more. Click here for a complete list of this year's award winners.
Coventry's Feinstein Einsteins received the Robot Design Programming award for their robot, "Sabers", which recognized the team for "utilizing outstanding programming principles, including clear, concise and reusable code that allows their robot to perform challenge missions autonomously and consistently".
The FIRST LEGO League program is aimed at students who want to explore science, technology, engineering and/or robotics in a hands-on way, or who enjoy crafting, problem solving and working in teams. Click here for more information about how to form your own team.