RES Robotics holds first in house competition |

OSCODA – Richardson Elementary School third grade students competed in their first in house First LEGO League Junior competition on Thursday, May 9.

Third Grade RES teacher and Coach Connie Simpson and Fourth Grade RES teacher and Coach Melissa Winters planned the event to give students an opportunity to compete in another competiton. The group is allowed to attend one competition per year; however, parents and students agreed they wanted to have another one, so Winters and Simpson decided to have one in house.

“This gave us the chance to have more family attend and get the community involved,” said Winters.

This year the students traveled to Brighton for their only competion. The group worked together to create one robot and competed as a group of six at the competion. In Brighton they received the award for Overcoming Adversity.

The First Lego League Junior competition is a national organization that encourages kindergartners through fourth graders to learn about Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) through Robotics.

“They taught me a lot about coding too,” said Winters.

RES can only have six students compete on their team, but for the in house competition they allowed seven to participate including Zoey Curley, Michael Peace, Hailey Russo, Isla Merdzinksi, Carly Mongeau, Blake Roy and Logan Heiden. The Oscoda Rotary Club was invited to judge each robot in order to determine three winners. Participants were given three hours to complete their creations over a three week period.

The theme was be kind to others, but each student picked a topic they wanted to focus their robots on. Some of the topics included wind energy, homelessness, farming and fairs. Students constructed their robots using legos and added motors and other wiring to make a piece of the robot move.

Pizza was served for participants and guests. After the meal, students returned to their tables with their robots and posters to present them to rotary club members. Rotary club members moved in a circle visiting each robot and rating them with the sheets they were provided. Students were asked questions about challenges they faced and how they made their robots move. After much inquiring, students presented their posters and demonstrated how their robots move.

After each robot was judged, the scores were added together by Winters. First, second and third place winners were named. Third place was given to Carly Mongeau for her robot creation that resembled fair swings that moved in a circle. Zoey Curley was awarded second place for her water pipe robot. First place was given to Logan Heiden for his Double Windmill creation. Each student that placed received a medal and first place received a gift certificate.

With the school year coming to an end, so ends another year of robotics for RES students. Winters and Simpson admit that the students have taught them things throughout this year as well and that the kids have surprised them

“These kids think outside the box,” said Winters.

They are more ingenious than I thought,” said Simpson.

Simpson added that the real purpose to the group is to teach kids specific skills.

“It’s important to teach them how to be independent thinkers and understanding they can be a problem solver,” said Simpson.