Our Lego League Team at the national finals in Bristol……
The Final – as told by Oliver Ford
On Sunday, 26th February 2017, nine young students of the Razor Sharp Minds team took part in the First Lego League national final on behalf of Sussex.
The start being at 8:00 am, most of us took a car down the night before the day, however some of us woke up at 4:30 to go to Bristol. When we arrived, we went to the pits to set up and get prepared.
The first challenge that we faced was to present the RDES (Robot Design Executive Summary). We explained every aspect of our robot, FeeBee, from the claws to the sting. The PowerPoint showed the judges exactly why we built FeeBee how we did. After questions from the judges, the team returned to base and continued to give out bags of goodies and loom bands to all of the other teams.
The next challenge was the first of three robot games. The robot performed well, however we only scored forty-eight points as we did not complete every mission we went for.
After a small break in base, the team went on to do their research project for the judges. Before the presentation, there was a technical issue with the HDMI cable?! However, it was fixed, and the presentation could continue. This was the best run of the presentation yet, and we all really enjoyed it.
The next activity the team did was the second robot game. This time, more of our programs worked and we scored a total of sixty-four points.
After this, we had our lunch.
Next, we did our Core Values presentation. It went very well (especially as we had not practised it) and it was definitely the best run through yet.
Finally, we were getting prepared for our last robot game, when we found out that the opposite team were going to do the joint mission, which meant we could score an extra sixty points. Unfortunately, they were stopped ½ second away from finishing the mission, so on the final round we only scored fifty-four.
The last thing in the day was to go to the awards ceremony. Unfortunately, we did not win anything here, thus we went home empty handed. However, we all had a great and tiring day, and I would definitely do it all again.
A Message from Mr Williams
Firstly, thank you everybody for all of the support you have given to Razor Sharp Minds First Lego League team this year. Through the Loom band making & seed packet design competition you enabled us to represent Reigate St Mary’s in the best possible way.
I hope that you managed to keep up with the excitement at the Competition via YouTube & Twitter on Sunday? If you could not & would like to sample the excitement, pressure & see Feebee, our robot, in action please follow the link below. If you skip to 1:42:00 minutes you will see the team introduced & then be able to watch their first run in the robot games competition. The video last for 7 hours and you will see the team pop up throughout if you have any spare time?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xh30tVzvMQ
The venue was HUGE! The team were AMAZING on the day! The support provided by parents & siblings was SPECTACULAR! The team performed superbly in each of the judged elements, Research, Core Values & Robot design, demonstrating the hard work they had put in and also their enthusiasm for the Animal Allies topic. Unfortunately, RSM were not awarded with any of the prizes but the standard of competition from the 47 other teams was extremely high and they held their own against the 16 year olds fantastically!
I would like to express my thanks to each member of the team, Joseph B, Joe F, Caitlyn F, Hannah W, Oliver F, Bjorn M, Anush U, Edward D & Owen W, for their enthusiasm, dedication & expertise within each of the required elements. They made Razor Sharp Minds the successful team that it was & also made their coach extremely proud!
My thanks also go the extremely supportive parents, not just for their support on the day but also throughout the journey. Picking up & delivering the children come wind rain & snow is just the obvious! The assistance we received in creating an entertaining and informative research project, production of a wonderful core values poster and designing, constructing & threading thousands of beads onto loom bands made us a complete package & a Reigate St Mary’s community family team!
Let the Razor Sharp Minds LEGO-cy live on!
For those of you fired up & inspired by what we have achieved this season please go onto the web & see what is out there, it will blow you away! – especially what is on YouTube.
http://firstlegoleague.theiet.org/
To any Year 5 children interested for next years’ RSM FLL team, check out the clubs list for the Summer term & click on the link below for a FIRST LEGO League HYDRO DYNAMICS teaser – 2017/2018 season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VScismWTNtQ
Many thanks
