A Roaring Victory for Robotics Team

A pile of LEGO bricks offers nearly limitless creative potential. In the hands and minds of a group of fifth-grade Marksmen, it turned into victory at the First LEGO League (FLL) State Championship. Team RoboRoar won the Robot Performance Award and snapped-up third place in the overall competition.

  

“This is a huge accomplishment for our team of fifth graders who were competing against teams of seventh and eighth graders,” said Stewart Mayer, Makerspace director and Robotics Team sponsor. “It has been a long six-month journey with quite a surprise ending.” 

  

  

“Perseverance was key to the team’s success,” said Dr. Stephen Harder, father of Elliot ’30 and the team’s head coach. “Small, early successes in the season inspired the boys to gain confidence and work even harder. Each competition, they moved up in the rankings, and by mid-season, they set a goal to compete with the top teams in the state.” 

  

The FLL program consists of four parts, the robot game, an innovation project, a presentation and a core values evaluation. The robot game, which the team won, usually attracts the most excitement. A field is set up on a 4-by-8-foot table with various missions to complete. Each mission has associated points, and the team that earns the most points within a two-and-one-half-minute time limit wins. The task requires serious teamwork, programming skills and robot-building skills to create a bot that can achieve multiple missions. 

 

“My favorite part of the program was seeing our robot work,” said team member Elliot Harder. “When that run goes perfectly, it’s like, ‘yes, it worked!’”

  

The RoboRoar team members are students Taj Clayton, Atlas Diep, Henry Franklin, John Griggs, Elliot Harder, Ryan Jarratt and Ritam Setu, coach Dr. Stephen Harder and program sponsors Stewart Mayer and Dr. Dan Lipin, biology teacher.