Lego League Mentored by Gaelhawks
Written by Tom Victor on December 03, 2005
Team 230 not only participates in their own competition, but also extends a helping hand to the younger students interested in science and technology. For the past four years the Gaelhawks have acted as mentors to the Shelton Intermediate School FIRST Lego League team, Team 4305. The SIS Thundering Tigers, starting in October, spent weeks building and programming their robot preparing for their competitions.
The game for this year?s team was called Ocean Odyssey, which depicted the importance of the Earth?s oceans and how little is known about them. The Research Project this year asked the teams to choose an ocean or sea activity or resource and trace its impact on our oceans? health, biodiversity, and productivity. They were also asked to learn what the experts and other groups are doing in this area, and identify challenges they are facing. The project that teams put together is then presented to a panel of judges at the competitions.The Thundering Tigers chose to do a Powerpoint presentation and construct a model concerning coral reef pollution.
The Research Project was only a part of what the Thundering Tigers had to do during each competition. The main focus was the game, which included a mat set out on tables that represented an ocean and beach. Each table included nine missions: moving a submarine off of a platform, standing small flags up, pushing a protective covering over an underwater pump station, completing links in a pipeline, sampling a specific fish among other fish, releasing a dolphin, moving artificial reef to the beach or shallow water, cleaning up cargo, and recovering artifacts. The team decided to concentrate on completing five of the nine missions: the coral reef, the pipeline, the dolphin, the pump station, and the fish sample. Teams had two and a half minutes during the competition to finish as many tasks as they could, and team members could not touch the robot without receiving a penalty unless it was in the field base.
Team 4305 attended two regionals and the state competition, including the Bridgeport Local hosted by the Gaelhawks, where the team won the Judge?s Award. At their first regional competition in Enfield, the team won a golden ticket, enabling the Tigers to go to states after the Bridgeport Regional. At states, the Tigers came away with a second place award in programming.
The Tigers had a great season, and look forward to next year, when they can participate in a new competition with a new game and learn more about the mission of FIRST.
