St Mary’s FIRST Lego League team members completing their final preparations for the regional tournament in Wollongong on Saturday, November 28.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The FIRST Lego League is a competition where people need to build, program and compete with a Lego robot while learning about a modern problem in science or engineering.
The St Mary’s team consists of nine students and they have chosen to focus on the problem of pollution in the ocean.
They have designed and built a Lego robot which will complete simple set challenges at the tournament.
While learning about technology and robotics they have also created posters to demonstrate the effect that pollution has on animals in the ocean.
“We are trying to stop people littering and killing sea animals,” said team member Keyana Butler.
The team has used shock tactics similar to those on cigarette packets on their posters, which feature graphic images of injured and dead wildlife.
They will be sticking these up around the community and the school to encourage people not to dispose of waste in the ocean.
Students were required to do everything themselves including using the programming software EV3 Mindstorms for their Lego robot.
The robot is named Qwerty and it will be controlled by the students at the tournament, as it completes as many of the set missions as possible in 25 minutes.
The robot’s missions are not directly related to ocean waste but are technology themed to give the students a broader knowledge of science, technology and how they are linked.
One of the project managers of the group, and member of the team Nicholas Dinnen, said that his team had learnt a lot in their three months of training and “learnt it the hard way.”
“The best thing about it is the exposure to science and technology,” said Coach Jenny Sim.
“This competition is like Lego on steroids.
“They have been doing things they didn’t think they would ever achieve.”
The school sponsors the team and teacher Renee Pearson says that the idea is open the children’s eyes to new possibilities.