SME not a Lego League winner, but coach appreciates opportunity
Ted Escobar/The Sun Tribune - Coach Angelina Sosam helps her Mattawa Elementary team on the finishing touches on their competition robot.
Ted Escobar/The Sun Tribune - Ashley Wisdom and Keith Brown compete in the first of three autonomous portions of the FLL competition.
Ted Escobar/The Sun Tribune - Team Mattawa Elementary preparing the practice field before the competition. Pictured from left to right: Teacher Arthur Morken, Yeselle Maldonado, Keith Brown, Caleb Morken, Diego Mendoza
MATTAWA — No Wahluke School District elementary school placed at the First Lego League Eastern Qualifier at Salk Middle School in Spokane on Dec. 11.
But Advisor Cesar Ortiz was grateful for the opportunity for his studends to compete and their effort in trying to advance to the state competition.
“Wahluke has allowed students to pursue areas once not available,” Ortiz said. “Now we have teams competing in robotics and learning crucial STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) skills. Parents who were able to be at the competition now have a sense of how this learning develops students, and motivates them to continue learning STEM skills.”
In First Lego League competitions, tomorrow’s innovators practice imaginative thinking and teamwork. Guided by adult coaches, First Lego League teams research a real-world problem such as food safety, recycling, energy, etc., and are challenged to develop a solution.
They also must design, build and program a robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology, then compete on a table-top playing field.
Along their discovery journey, students develop critical thinking and team-building skills, basic STEM applications, and even presentation skills. They must present their solutions with a dash of creativity to judges.
This is the Animal Allies season. During the Animal allies season, teams will choose and solve a real-world problem. Wahluke students looked into the alliance between people and cows.
Four Wahluke teams participated at Spokane. They were Saddle Mountain Elementary (coached by Katie Ruiz, Cesar Ortiz); Morris Schott Team, (coached by Chad Lednum, Derek Fox); and Mattawa Elementary A and Mattawa Elementary B (both coached by Angelina Sosa, Arthur Morken)
The competition included 90 schools from Washington. Mattawa Elementary did receive an award, the Rookie Team Award.
“All teams did their best as they presented to judges scoring the event,” Ortiz said. “The coaches and I are very proud of our performance.”
“Watching the students engaged in programming robots, testing them and competing made it clear to me that this will have a lasting impact,” Ortiz added. “The level of learning was so immense that students are eager to learn more STEM skills.”