For 5 months, Calvin and his team have been preparing for the LEGO Engineering Competition. I was amazed at the complexity of this project. The theme was The Body. Fouth and fifth graders created objects representing a bone, a heart, and brain using LEGO. The main part of the project was the LEGO robot. The robot was created with LEGO and was programmed to move in certain directions, to turn at certain points, and to follow a line on the board until it reach its destination. The robot would move to make a broken bone whole again. It delivered medicine. It repaired a heart valve. Each mission performed successfully was worth a certain number of points.
Their competition was last Saturday. One of the challenges of the competition was that all the teams were out of their comfort zone of not being able to use the table they practiced on all these months. They used tables that were set up by the LEGO League organizers. It was intense to watch the teams competing again each other. You could see panic and disappointment in the kids' faces if their robot malfunctioned. At the same time, kids rejoiced when their robot performed successfully.
Each team also gave a presentation on a health subject of their choice. Some of the presentations were decidedly boring where the kids did nothing more than stand and read from a report. Calvin's team decided to give a presentation on skin in a game show format. Calvin was one of the contestants. His group did very well and got the maximum number of points for their presentation.
Calvin's team, the LegoManiacs, got fourth place out of 13 teams. Only the first place teams got a trophy and I think that's the way it should be. It only makes you want to try harder next time. Calvin got a ribbon and a certificate and came home proud of his achievement.
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