JAY – Creative enthusiasm for science and technology was on full, energetic display in Spruce Mountain High School’s gym on Saturday as 32 teams competed at the Western Maine FIRST LEGO League Qualifier all with the hope of moving onto the state championship to be held in a few weeks.
A total of 22 teams qualified, with five teams from Franklin County advancing to states. All four of Spruce Mountain Middle School of Jay teams: Dumpster Divers, Talk Nerdy to Me, Really Inconvenient and Wall-EEE; and Smart Fun Learning Adventures’ Smart Fun Engineers of Farmington. Also competing was Cape Cod Hill School’s team Apple Masters of New Sharon.
Spruce Mountain’s Wall-EEE earned the top Champion’s Award and its team Talk Nerdy to Me won the Inspiration Award. Smart Fun took home the Judges’ Award. Both Apples Masters and Smart Fun Engineers were rookie teams competing.
Hosting the all-day event were veterans of the program, the Spruce Mountain Area Robotics Team or SMART. This is the first year a qualifier was held in three locations around the state before the Maine FIRST LEGO League Championships because the program has grown so popular.
Of the 90 teams competing in the qualifying round across Maine on Saturday, 60 made it to the state championship set for Dec. 12 at the Augusta Civic Center.
The competition is for students ages 9-14 who design, build, and program robots using LEGO Mindstorm kits. The robots competed on a 4-foot x 8-foot table by scoring points doing different LEGO missions within a 2.5-minute time limit with each team allowed three heats. Between the trials teams were allowed a 15-minute tweaking time while the other teams competed.
“Everybody uses the same kit but can come up with different solutions,” said Jan Roberts of Farmington who serves on the non-profit Maine Robotics Corporation board which works to provide plenty of FIRST LEGO League and other like-minded programs for Maine’s students.
“There’s no right answer. The coaches’ job is to stay out of the way and let them go as far as they want to go,” Roberts said over the din of teams cheering each other on. About 500 people attended qualifier in Jay on Saturday, including team members, volunteer coaches, judges, scorekeepers, those who donated food and ran the concessions, and many families.
Before the robot performances in the afternoon, teams presented their research on an aspect of waste management before a panel of judges. Topics ran the gamut from disposal to recycling, which all revolved around this year’s theme of Trash Trek. The presentation score was incorporated into the robot performance points to determine the overall top teams.
Cape Cod Hill School’s fourth and fifth grade students, all wearing blue hospital scrub costumes, “were ready to operate” on their robot after the first trial. Running to a corner of the gym, Angel Martin with Chloe Bates sat and studied their LEGO-built robot and adjusted the computer laptop programming cues to fine tune its maneuvers. After a few test runs they ran back for another try.
Their coach Sarah Ferguson noted the team included students in the special education, gifted and talented and regular education programs, “who are all working together,” she said smiling and adding, “It’s great.”
Lego Robotics Teams from Franklin County:
Team 3483 Wall-EEE, Spruce Mountain Middle School in Jay: Jenna Badeau, Melissa Bamford, Drew Delaney, Acacia Fournier, Jack Gilbert, Chandler Pike;
Team 3484 Really Inconvenient, Spruce Mountain Middle School in Jay: Jordan Blanche, Quinn Fournier, Taylor Guay, Carter Mitchell, Owen Wilkins;
Team 3485 Talk Nerdy to Me, Spruce Mountain Middle School in Jay: Evany Black, Jordan Blais, Hannah Coates, Joni George, Dylan Gould, Isaac Pinard, Noah Wells;
Team 3486 Dumpster Divers, Spruce Mountain Middle School in Jay: Jacob Bryant, Ashley Chicoine, Owen Dow, Evan Farmer, Logan Laplante;
Team 16492 Smart Fun Engineers, Smart Fun Learning Adventures in Farmington: Cole Martin, Eli Rackliffe, Calvin Tanner, Evan Thomas;
Team 19200 Apple Masters, Cape Cod Hill School in New Sharon: Chloe Bates, Abigail Bartlett, Matthew Boynton, Treston Carrow, Mariah Dill, Megan Gideon, Angel Martin, Levi Merchant, Evan Phillips, Jonah Stanley.