There are about 50 -4th & 5th graders in GEMS & GISE. Since October, they have been participating in the FIRST Lego League team challenge.
I did not fully appreciate the scope of Lego League until the MPS Lego League tournament this past Saturday. Loring was represented by 2 GEMS teams & 2 GISE teams. There were incredible numbers of teams representing MPS there!
The challenge was to work together to build a lego robot and learn to program it to complete various "missions" on a mat which looked like this:
They scored points for various parts of the missions and had to complete as many as they could in 2-1/2 minutes. Each team had 3 attempts to run their missions. After the first one, Toby's team was nearly in tears because things did not go well and they ended up with only 18 points. Each round went better than the last and they ended up with 207 points, far more than they had gotten in any of their practices!
There was a head-to-head competition at the end of the day: teams competed against each other and the team with the highest points in 2-1/2 minutes advanced to the next bracket. Toby's GISE team made it to the final round - we will find out later whether they won or lost that division final, but regardless of the outcome, it was an exciting series of matches!
In addition to the competition, teams had to do a research project on some aspect of the theme, "Nature's Fury." Part of the tournament consisted of each team presenting their research to a judge and answering questions.
Toby's team researched earthquakes' destructiveness and ways to make buildings more earthquake-proof.
Another event was a teamwork challenge where they were judged on how well they communicated with one another as they attempted to solve a problem.
In yet another segment of the day, the team showed their missions, their design/ programming notes, and their computer programs to a pair of judges.
I learned that the programming is Toby's favorite part.
The teams cheered each other on:
The other GISE team as well as the 2 GEMS teams did very well and the kids exceeded their coaches' expectations of this first year of Lego League!
Lego League may not track to "state standards" or promote test scores on the high-stakes testing environment in which we live. However, the skills and experiences these 50 kids have experienced through GEMS & GISE are far more critical. I observed problem- solving, performing under pressure, communication, teamwork, learning, and excitement! Participating in GEMS and GISE will not only promote academic success, but more importantly, life skills.
This is one parent who is very pleased to see resources devoted to this type of hands' on learning and development of critical skills! And I'm sure all the kids noticed when one of their teachers told them "this is the best part of my job!"
