Cordova High School sent its two junior high robotics teams to Anchorage on Dec. 16 to compete in the final qualifier of the season for FIRST Lego League.
The competition for CHS was almost canceled due to ferry and weather changes, but donations of mileage tickets from the school and patrons got the teams to Anchorage.
The CHS junior high participation more than doubled this year with 12 students making the competition trip. The 7th grade G.O.T.I.T. team included Braden Beckett, Noah Collins, Gracie Hatch, Eleanore Fode, Cole Hanson, Joshua Pitchford and Jacob Ranney. The 8th grade Biohazard Bots included Charlie Carroll, Leopold Craig, Jack Harris, Jaqai Kinsman and Aaron Tatiana.
Each team participated in three morning judging sessions: one for robot design, another for their project on hydro dynamics, and a third for core values. The kids all felt their judging sessions went well and it was great to mingle with the other teams during the morning and do final robot competition preps.
Shortly before 1 p.m. the official opening ceremonies began, with the Biohazard Bots first in queue for matches. They had few robot hiccups the first round and didn’t score, completed a challenge in the second round, and in the third round completed the same challenge and picked up a bonus from the competing team, to finish the day with a high score of 40. The 7th graders also struggled during matches, but were able to consistently improve their score during the day, finishing two challenges and scoring 30 points.
Cordova had visibly the largest group at the event and stood out brightly in matching blue jerseys. Though they didn’t win awards, they learned a lot about the competition, met students from other areas of Alaska and had fun. After the event they even got to take in the new Star Wars The Last Jedi movie opening in IMAX 3D.
