This year’s First Lego League Trash Trek Challenge charged students to come up with a solution to a waste management problem. A few months back, I had the pleasure of visiting the Technical Titans team of Willink Middle School and was immediately impressed with the innovation and drive among the team members. In the spirit of looking to a bright new future in 2016, I want to share the group’s success story via the response I received from their coach Steve D’Ambrosio, MPAS, PA-C, of URMC Department of Imaging Sciences. Not surprisingly, the Technical Titans exceeded in the competition and won the 1st Place Champion’s Award!!! I am so extremely happy for the team on their well-deserved achievement and was honored to be included in part of their research! Congratulations and best wishes always to all involved!!
Here are the full details in the note I received from Steve:
Hi Amy-
The Technical Titans Willink Middle School Lego Robotic Team competed in the Finger Lakes FLL Championship Tournament on Sunday 12/6/15 at the U of R.
The competition consisted of 36 teams (The top 6 teams from each of the 6 Qualifier competitions in the region). The kids needed to present their Project, Robot design along with Robot competition and demonstrating the FLL (First Lego League) Core Values.
For their project, the team needed to identify a problem, develop an innovative solution and share it with others. This year the Lego theme was “Trash Trek”. They were asked, “How can we reduce trash or improve the way we handle it?”
For their project, the kids decided to recycle their school milk cartons. Previously, they were just thrown in the trash. The team designed a contest at school to see which grade level could recycle the most milk cartons. At the end of the contest, the winning grade level would win the “Milk Madness Trophy” and would also present a donation in honor of the winning grade level to the “Smile Train” Charity to help children with Cleft Palates. “Kids helping kids” was the Technical Titans motto!
Please click the link to view their project presentation:
http://www.websterschools.org/webpages/legorobotics/index.cfm?subpage=130297
For the Robot competition, the kids needed to design and program a robot to perform tasks on the designated mission board to accumulate points throughout the competition.
The Core Values are the cornerstone of the program. Participants learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.
The kids put on a solid performance in all aspects of the competition. In the end, the Technical Titans won the 1st Place Champion’s Award – the highest award given at this competition! The Champion’s Award recognizes a team that “embodies the FIRST LEGO League experience, but fully embracing the Core Values while achieving excellence and innovation in both the Robot Game and Project.”
We want to thank you for taking time to help our team and educate the students about the different aspects of recycling. Your help allowed the kids to narrow down a project idea and explore many different avenues.
Thank you from the Technical Titans Team #3251 from Willink Middle School, Webster NY !!!
Team Members:
Colby Armstrong, Tyler Armstrong, Martin Carey, Andrew D’Ambrosio, Matthew D’Ambrosio, Adam Daniels, Ben Furst, Anna Pekurny, Gus Pellett, John Talen, Coaches: Sarah Armstrong, Steve D’Ambrosio
~Steve
For more information, visit www.firstlegoleague.org/.