Students in the First Lego League teams in the first through third grades had an opportunity to share their projects with the community recently at the Cordova Robotics Showcase, held in the media center of Cordova High School. For the younger kids, this was a chance to present their projects and learn about the First Lego League and First Technology Challenge programs.
This season we had 21 participants in Junior First Lego League, geared for kids in the first through third grades, with a focus on learning about a theme topic, preparing a Lego project presentation, and building core value skills. This was the first season offering the younger Junior FLL program in Cordova.
The theme for the season, Aqua Adventure, was all about water lifecycles, a perfect matchup for Cordova. The students had very innovative ideas for managing the water cycle, presented in creative ways using Legos.
The five Junior FLL teams met once a week from mid-September through mid-December at the Mt. Eccles library. Each team received an engineering notebook with lesson plans, a project theme kit, and a robot brain to help animate their projects. The students learned about the water lifecycle, and did project exercises, including choosing team names and building posters, explored solving real world problems together, and built a project solution demo.
At the Dec. 21 event, FLL teams from the fourth through eighth grade and the high school FTC team also showcased the robots and competition fields, and the high school team set up and ran a 3D printer to make commemorative coins for the event.
This was the second year running for Cordova FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology), which is provided by the Cordova School District and CHS Tech Club, with over 60 students participating. Cordova was reported to have the fastest growing robotics program to date in Alaska and for size had the most teams registered within the state.
The Mt. Eccles Junior First Lego League teams were:
Happy Sunshine Bubbles — 1st grade:
Brigg Fritsch, Hope Hatch, Everleigh Mills and Max Osborn
Shockwave — 1st grade:
Lily Arasmith, Isabella Dudley, Natalie Niles, Brady McManus and Tracer Stimson
Sky Robots — 1st grade:
Sawyer Bennett, Grace Higgins, Tage Kinsman, Micah Phillips and Bastien Wagner
Mini Figs — 2nd grade:
Jake Branon, Gianalieh Dunn, Marcus Holly and Amelia Niles
Legos In Water — 3rd grade:
Andrew Bellefeville, Gunnar Davis and Robert Taylor
Jeremiah Beckett is the Cordova High School Tech Club advisor.
