The Emerson Challengers and the Kinetic Koders competed in the New Albany Regional Qualifier.
This past weekend, the Emerson Elementary FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics teams competed against 10 other area teams in the New Albany Regional Qualifier. The two teams, both coached by Emerson teachers Jeffrey Miltko and Beth Dalin, have been working since August to complete a research project and robot game missions, all while practicing the FIRST core values of Coopertition (sic) and Gracious Professionalism. For the robot game, teams program a LEGO MINDSTORMS robot to complete various missions on a 4' x 8' challenge table during a 2 1/2 minute competition run. The project requires teams to identify a problem relating to the theme (this year’s is CITY SHAPER), devise a solution, and share that solution with others. They present their project, as well as their robot design and programming strategies, to a panel of judges during the competition. Final results take into consideration teams’ achievements in all four areas: project, robot game, robot design, and core values. Regional qualifiers are the first round of competition in the FLL season.
The two Emerson FLL teams are the Emerson Challengers and the Kinetic Koders. The Kinetic Koders are a new team made up of nine Emerson fourth and fifth graders: Alex Ceresa, Lydia Chapman, Owen Drake, Soren Hubble, Jack LaLonde, Cooper Longwell, Ben Rutti, Mira Shyamalan, and Addie Tubaugh. For their project, they envisioned an Archimedes’ screw installed near Alum Creek Park that would utilize the movement of Alum Creek to generate electricity for the park and its surrounding walking and bike paths. They received excellent feedback from the judges and performed admirably in the robot game, especially for a rookie team.
The Emerson Challengers are a third-year team comprised of two current Emerson fifth graders (Helen Ghitescu and Lincoln Haman) and five Emerson alumni who are current Westerville middle school students (Addie Gurgiolo, Luke Haman, Adam Kauh, Evan Pate, and Ali Washburn). Their project, the Solar Light Bike Box, utilizes a combination of solar power and weighted pressure plates to provide environmentally-friendly lighting for the portion of the Ohio-to-Erie trail that runs from Alum Creek Park southward across Schrock Road and into Columbus. Because of their attitude of displaying unqualified kindness and respect in the face of fierce competition, the Challengers were recognized with the Coopertition (sic) award. They placed fourth in the robot game and second overall, advancing to the District Qualifier, which will take place in Dublin on January 11.