First Lego League Champions Award Winners
In December ‘Razor Sharp Minds’, a team of Year 6 pupils from Reigate St Mary’s Preparatory and Choir School participated in the First Lego League Regional Tournament at Brighton College.
The First Lego League challenges children in developing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) skills, often referred to as ‘Sport For The Mind’, and asks children to think like scientists and engineers. The theme for the tournament was ‘city shapers’, challenging the team to identify a real world problem with our cities and to create a unique solution.
The RSM team built, tested and programmed an autonomous robot, named Frankie, using Lego Mindstorms EV3 to solve missions in a robot game. The robot was programmed to collect and deliver objects and to activate models to score points.
Throughout the competition the Razor Sharp Minds pupils performed superbly, demonstrating their understanding, knowledge and hard work within each of the judged categories. The pupils collaborated with each other effectively, demonstrating their technical understanding and presented their ideas on how skyscrapers can become much more people, energy and environmentally friendly.
The team used a unique ‘tag team’ system and piloted their robot precisely, successfully completing missions and achieving an impressive point’s score for the regional round. Razor Sharp Minds were named overall winners and presented with the Champions Award. The children were euphoric, with huge smiles and squeals as they proudly held aloft the trophy, made of Lego! Several of the teams participating were Secondary Schools, emphasising the achievement and the level of competition they faced.
Simon Williams, Director of Digital Strategy at RSM said of the success, “I am extremely proud of the RSM team and their achievement in this stage of the competition. Throughout the experience the team have worked enthusiastically and have represented the school so brilliantly. The judges were complementary about the team’s performance, enthusiasm and understanding. Razor Sharp Minds must now focus on the National Final in February, where they will compete against 55+ other regional tournament winners. Good luck RSM!”