Students from all across B.C. and the Yukon demonstrated just how scientific LEGO can be at the recent FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Challenge BC/Yukon Championship.
Meadowridge School hosted the event on March 9, with more than 400 people showing up to either compete or watch the children demonstrate their technical prowess.
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“Over 80 volunteers, with around half from the Meadowridge students and families, helped make the day a success,” said a Meadowridge School representative.
“It was a long day from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with presentations to judges about their innovation project and robot in addition to the timed robot runs where the teams tried to complete as many missions to earn points as possible.”
As part of the competition, student groups were judged on four key areas, which included their innovation project, the design of their LEGO robot, the score from the robot obstacle course, and their teamwork/initiative.
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Meadowridge also explained that other smaller events were set up throughout the school for people to enjoy.
“There were also games for the kids such as a build challenge and a scavenger hunt organized by some of our high school students,” said the school’s representative.
“There was even a small event for four Grade 2 to 3 FLL explore teams where they were able to show off their building, coding, and teamwork.”
Six of the 36 teams competing at the championship event were from Meadowridge, with the local teams putting on quite the performances and even earning a few awards.
The following teams won awards at the 2024 FIRST LEGO League Challenge BC/Yukon Championship:
• Teamsters (Nanaimo) – Champion’s Award First Place
• FIFA (Richmond) – Champion’s Award Second Place
• Doges (Richmond) – Champion’s Award Third Place
• Fireweed Robotics (Whitehorse) – Core Values Award First Place
• WASPS (Richmond) – Core Values Award Second Place
• Captain Ducks (Richmond) – Innovation Project Award First Place
• Team Mischief (Richmond) – Innovation Project Award Second Place
• MDR KFC (Maple Ridge) – Robot Design Award First Place
• The Unknown Code (Esquimalt) – Robot Design Award Second Place
• MDR Failure Management (Maple Ridge) – Engineering Excellence Award
• Slipper Guys (Richmond) – Engineering Excellence Award
• HMS-3 (Kelowna) – Breakthrough Award
• MDR MnM (Maple Ridge) – Rising All-Star Award
• MMMMM… Marshmallows (Burnaby) – Motivate Award
• Brendan Stanford of DRK-1 (Kelowna) – Coach/Mentor Award
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Several of the award winners were also invited to compete at international FLL events, with Teamsters, FIFA, and Doges all headed to U.S. events later this year.