By John Rohlf, The Message assistant editor
One year after competing at the FIRST LEGO League state championship for the first time in school history, Evansville’s Holy Redeemer School robotics team placed first in one category at this year’s state competition.
The Rockets returned two of their competitors from last year’s team, Claire Schmitt and Cole Sexton, who are both in eighth grade. Seventh grader Sutton Markland was also a member of this year’s team that earned first place in robot design.
“They did a description of the innovation project and the robot design and they said something about blasting off with a 3D model,” Claire Schmitt said. “And then we were like could it be us? Probably not, but maybe. And then they said it was our team number. We were really excited and went up there and got our trophy.”
The Rockets earned first place in the category out of 36 teams who competed at the state championship in Indianapolis. The robot design award was based on outstanding programming principles and solid engineering practices to develop a robot that is mechanically sound, durable, efficient and highly capable of performing challenge missions.
“This team filtered to the top of our robot lists, looking above and below just scratching the surface,” the comment on the First Indiana Robotics website says. “Identifying an issue was only the beginning, and their pollution solution would soon form in 3D. This team is ready to blast off, congratulations.”
Schmitt and Sexton both said in their second year at the state competition, they were calmer than they were at last year’s competition and knew what to expect.
“I wasn’t as nervous to go to these competitions as I was last year,” Sexton said. “Just because I had two other teammates with me and we practiced it tons of times so we knew what we were doing.”
Markland said joining the robotics team at Holy Redeemer was a new experience for him. He had played with Legos before but had otherwise not competed as part of a robotics team.
“I don’t feel like it was as hard as I thought it was going to be,” Markland said. “I felt calm even though I’ve never done it before. The hardest part was probably the robot games because you have a timer.”
In addition to being tasked with completing missions during the competition, the teams also present their innovation project. For this year’s innovation project, the Holy Redeemer team developed a plan to use robots to clean garbage and other pollutants in the ocean. In their plan, conveyor belts move large trash in the inner box of the robot. The model would be a 3x6x12 foot machine.
During the competition, they present their innovation project and robot design to three judges. Derek LeDuc, one of the coaches, said judges usually include a LEGO League representative and someone who is an expert in the field. In this case, it was someone with a background in oceanic preservation.
“What I like about the program is that with the innovation projects and the robot design, it really does put their creativity and research under pressure,” LeDuc said. “They get judged on it. They get interviewed about it. They have to answer questions on the fly about it. It really gives them skills for the real world where you have to back up what you’re saying. Which for them to get that at this age, I just think it’s a great benefit for them.”
Matt Schmitt, also a coach for the Holy Redeemer Robotics teams, said after the presentations, they have to answer questions on the FIRST Lego League’s core values of teamwork, discovery, inclusion, innovation, impact and fun and how it relates to their team.
Matt Schmitt said teamwork is a big aspect in completing all aspects of the project and competing in the state competition. They are required to work together to make sure everyone is included, he said.
“Just for the presentation part of it is kind of a time management and learning how to break it up into smaller pieces and kind of divvy it out to everybody where everybody’s able to get it then together,” Matt Schmitt said. “(They) can get it done quicker than doing it individually.”
This year, Holy Redeemer opened their eligibility up to sixth graders to join the seventh and eighth graders. They had six total students participate this year and decided to form two teams of three students each.
“With the number of students, we just went ahead and did two teams this year so that they would be able to be more involved,” Matt Schmitt said.
