MICDS Teams Advance in FIRST® LEGO® League Competition

MICDS hosted the FIRST® LEGO® League regional competition on Saturday, November 12 and Sunday, November 13 in the McDonnell Center. Up to twenty teams made up of students ages 9-14 from schools throughout the region (Missouri and Illinois) competed each day in the 2011 Food Factor Challenge: “Keeping Food Safe.” Two teams of MICDS students coached by MICDS Science faculty members were among the five teams on Saturday that advanced to the championship round to be held at St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley on December 4.

The MICDS Rambots and Rambots 2 teams both performed well in the competition. The Rambots team won the Innovation and Strategy award as well as the Robot Performance award. The Rambots 2 team received the Gracious Professionalism award. Both teams scored among the top five teams advancing to the next round.

The MICDS team members included Sophia Puertas, Joshua Sutton, Alexander Huber, Niema Foroughi, Abi Lakshmanan, Clayton Pope, Jackson White, Nicholas LeNoir, Jack Baumstark, Raevyn Ferguson, and Harry Coovert. The two teams were coached by MICDS Science faculty members Nolan Clarke and Christy Moore.

What is the FIRST® LEGO® League?

The FIRST® LEGO® League is the result of an exciting alliance between FIRST® (For the recognition of science and technology) and the LEGO® Group. The program uses the LEGO Mindstorm technology to help inspire young students to get excited about science and technology. The students build and program an autonomous robot to score points on a thematic playing surface and create an innovative solution to a problem as part of their research project. These two elements – the Robot Game and the Project – make up the yearly challenge.

Information was provided by the communications department at MICDS.