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Neighbors | Submitted.High school robotics team member and junior league advisor Brandon Malahtaris helped junior leage members set up their display Feb. 7 at the third annual junior robotics team expo at Austintown Elementary School.

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Neighbors | Submitted.Members of the 14 teams in the FIRST LEGO junior robotics league posed with their high school advisors during their third annual expo Feb. 7 at Austintown Elementary School. .

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Neighbors | Submitted.Student members of the Austintown FIRST LEGO Junior robotics league played with Legos during the third annual expo on Feb. 7 at Austintown Elementary School.

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Neighbors | Submitted.Senior robotics team member Brandon Malahtaris asked senior Taylor Baer to prom during the FIRST LEGO junior robotics expo Feb. 7 at Austintown Elementary School.

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Neighbors | Submitted.Over 80 students in kindergarten through fourth grade participated in the FIRST LEGO Junior Robotics league’s expo Feb. 7 at Austintown Elementary School.

By JESSICA HARKER

jharker@vindy.com

The Austintown FIRST LEGO junior robotics league hosted its third annual expo at Austintown Elementary School on Feb. 7.

Advisor Andy Yantes said this is the first year the league has been open to any interested student, resulting in more than 80 students, in kindergarten through fourth grade, being involved.

“We had a lot of interest, which is so great,” Yantes said.

The expo was a way for students to show off everything that they learned in the 12 week long program, according to Yantes.

Younger students were broken into 14 teams, with two high school students advising each team.

Volunteers from the FIRST LEGO robotics league at the high school, as well as National Honors Society students led the groups.

“We had so many kids involved we needed more help than just the robotics kids,” Yantes said. “The NHS students stepped up, and they have all been great.”

High school students worked with their groups once per week after school, teaching a different lesson each week.

Yantes said this years program was titled “Mission Moon,” where students learned about the moon, and different types of engineering.

Student created “show me posters” to display during the expo, according to Yantes, which talked about the students and their interest in robotics.


“It’s all personalized, so they talked about why they wanted to join the group. The expo was a way for them to practice verbally expressing what they learned,” Yantes said.

The expo was open to community members, who Yantes said were encouraged to go around asking students about their posters, and the skills they learned through the program.

“It teaches them how to not only learn about these topics, but express them to other people as well,” Yantes said.

He said that the program will continue in upcoming years, offering an introduction to robotics for students at the elementary and intermediate levels.

“This is the biggest year yet, and I think it’s a good sign that the program is needed at the younger level,” Yantes said.

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