First Lego League is for our 4th and 5th graders. The teams for 2017 consist of 10 kids each. Both teams were coached by Mr. Barron and Tiffany Olsik. However, both teams were coached separately by Dawn Belongie (#27434 orange) and Bobbi McKenzie (#12214 purple) and they were also helped by high school mentors Lucas Runkel, Mitch Barron, Brandon Sarasin, and Michael Johnson.

Team #12214 won first place at the Copper Country Qualifier. Team #27434 won the robot design award. Team #12114 went down to Flint for state competition and got 2nd place in the mechanical design award.

This year the challenge was called “Animal Allies” which focused on collecting and sorting animals. The matches lasted for two minutes and thirty seconds where the robot did tasks like removing objects from structures and sorting food.

The students also have to give a demonstration on how the robot was built and the inner workings of it. They have to work on problem solving skills and show how to help the animals – all without the help of a coach.