Tea Lego League competes in ‘First Lego League Challenge’

On March 13th, the Tea Lego League competed in the ‘First Lego League Challenge’ competition.

The Tea Lego League is sponsored by DeGeest Corporation. The company has been instrumental in keeping the league going by contributing to pay for registration fees and materials. Tea Lego League was formed last year and has worked hard to see improvement this year. There were 22 teams from across the state at the event.

Each team earns points by programming their robot to complete as many missions as possible in 2.5 minutes. They are able to have three tries, and they keep their high score for the final score. Each team is also scored on a project they create to help solve the year’s focus problem. This year’s challenge was to find unique ways to help people be more active. The teams are also scored on their robot design strategy, as well as how well they work together as a team.

There were four teams from Tea that competed in this culminating event.

The ‘Robot Rebellion’ is coached by Dana Schmidt and Roy Weber. Their team scored 200 points for their robot run. The Robot Rebellion also received an honorable mention for their “Core Values” — how well they work as a team and with others.

The ‘Super Skaters’ are coached by Michelle DeYoung and scored 230 points for their robot run; a 120 point improvement from last year.

The ‘Road Runners’ are coached by Dawn Fischer and Audra Grunewaldt. They received a score of 245 points for their robot missions.

The high score for the Tea teams went to the team ‘Back with Bricks’ coached by Audra Grunewaldt and Rhonda Hammerquist. Their team scored 255 points for their robot missions. They also developed an activity ‘app’ for people to compete in a fun way while getting more fit.

Overall, the coaches said they are happy with their seasons and the progress the teams have made this year.

The coaches and teams would like to thank DeGeest Corporation for their sponsorship of the league. They would also like to thank the Tea School District for their flexibility and generosity by helping the teams with Lego tables, robots and donating outdated chromebooks. And finally, coaches said they would like to thank the City of Tea for helping the league with a location, the Tea Community Hall, to store their materials and hold meetings.