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12/12/2018 11:01 PM

John Winthrop Students Compete in FIRST LegoLeague Robotics Competition


Members of the John Winthrop Middle School 7th grade tram competing in the Big Bird Bonanza FIRST Lego League Robotics contest included, from right, Kate Yurasek, Will Fleischer, Linette Spaner, Joanna Petrone, Cooper Edwards, Madeline Morrissey, Noah Santangelo, Olivia Cunningham, and Owen Livingston. Photo courtesy of Kyle Fitch

On Nov. 10, two teams from John Winthrop Middle School (JWMS) competed in the Big Bird Bonanza For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology (FIRST) Lego League Robotics Contest in Farmington. More than 220 teams participated at one of eight competitions throughout the state.

FIRST Lego League challenges students to think like scientists and engineers. Students build, test, and program an autonomous robot using Lego Mindstorms technology to solve a set of missions in the robot game. While both JWMS teams performed competitively, the 8th grade team came close to making it to the state championships, scoring the fifth-highest mission points at the competition.

Throughout the competition season, teams must demonstrate a set of core values including celebrating discovery, teamwork, and professionalism. Teams also must choose and solve a real-world problem for the project portion of the competition. This year’s theme was Into Orbit, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Both teams identified a problem in space exploration and performed research to brainstorm and create a solution. They then had to share their project with a professional in a related field. Both teams contacted illustrious leaders in space technology. The 8th graders reached out to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and received a personal response from the chief engineer of NASA, John R. Roe, Jr., who stated that the students had “characterized the problem well and thought about the right kind of solutions.” The 7th graders gained key feedback from Dr. Sean Carey, senior staff scientist at the California Institute of Technology and the manager of the NASA’s Spitzer Center at Caltech.