Teams of budding engineers tasked with programing LEGO robots to dive beneath the ocean to complete a list of missions got to see their hard work pay off during a recent competition hosted by West Valley School.  

While the students watched as their autonomous robots worked to release a shark back into its habitat, helped a diver transport coral and retrieved a treasure chest from a shipwreck during the tournament on Jan. 25. The event featured 16 teams of about 95 students from Smith Valley, Somers, West Valley, Eureka and Ronan. 

“Hundreds of student hours have been spent building and troubleshooting these machines to move effortlessly around the game board,” said West Valley science teacher and tournament organizer Matt Honcoop.     

After advancing by competing at the qualifying tournament, three West Valley teams and one Smith Valley team will test their robotics skills at the FIRST LEGO League state tournament at Montana State University Feb.8.  

At the qualifying tournament, judges awarded first place to the West Valley Lego Lobsters made up of Aubrey Hardwick, Bristol Streiff, Coco Vick, Emery Lindemann, Mikenzie Bauer, Chloe Desch and Gracin Sears. Second place was awarded to the West Valley Gummy Sharks whose members are Hap Pemble, Owen Banek, Caleb Kreuger, Henry Weber, Marcus Bedtelyon, Brandon Hemmelman and Andrew Willis.  

Teams were judged on four challenge categories: a robot game, presentation, Innovation Project and core values.  

FIRST – an acronym of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – LEGO League is designed to introduce students to science, technology and engineering to students through hands-on learning.  

Advancing to the state was particularly exciting for the Smith Valley Techno Toads made up of Charlie Adamson, Hailey Sherman, Courtney Preble, and Russell Preble. The school had two teams competing. This is the second year the school has had FIRST LEGO League teams and it has never qualified for state before, said Smith Valley robotics adviser and science teacher Myrna Matulevich.  

“The team is holding some extra meetings to improve their robot game. They are also accepting donations to offset the [state] travel costs,” she said.  

The other West Valley team headed to state are the Sonar Sea Snakes whose members include Asher Foshay, Chance Rasmussen, Hunter Russel, Niko Brewer, Ethen Patterson, Taylor Terrett, Ariella Rasmussen and Jacob Heraldson. Eureka teams the Scarlet Bots and HuskoiKajius also qualified to compete at state.  

Students had 12 to 15 weeks to build robots using LEGO kits and program them to complete a game by accomplishing tasks that increase in difficulty to score as many points as possible in under 3 minutes.  

This year's game required students to program robots to push, pull, lift, twist and slide to collect game models autonomously on a pool table-sized playing field, Honcoop said.   

“The game board is based on the 'Submerged' season theme with elements including recovering sunken treasure, relocating species, planting coral nurseries and collecting artifacts from the deep,” he said.  

STUDENTS SHOWCASED the features of their robots, the engineering, design and development process to judges. Robot presentation awards were given to the West Valley Bad Apples and the Somers Bob the Builders team.  

Students were also tasked with creating engineering projects, called Innovation Projects, which they presented to judges based on the theme. Honcoop said teams explored the “challenges of ocean navigation, underwater exploration, reducing ecological impact, or defining any other challenge related to oceanic exploration.” The Techno Toads and Eureka Wale Sharks received top scores in this category.  

The Lego Lobsters are trying with their engineering project to reduce the number of large marine animal strikes by creating a detector/alarm system to alert ship pilots when large animals are in the area. 

“They are interested in the frequency of animal strikes, current detection technology, if the pilots can perform evasive maneuvers, and if there are any frequencies that could deter animals from approaching a vessel at speed,” Honcoop said. “They developed a prototype sensor and alarm that could be useful to solve this problem.”  

Teamwork, inclusion and positive impact are part of the competition in the Core Values category, which was displayed through tournament interactions. Top-scoring teams exemplifying these traits were the Scarlet Bots and Sonar Sea Snakes.  

The FIRST LEGO League is open to students in grades fourth through eighth. A FIRST Tech Challenge program is also available to grades seventh through 12th.  

“It would be exciting to have more local groups start their own FIRST LEGO League teams and foster a regional robotics presence in the Flathead Valley. This is an amazing program and community that cannot exist without the help and mentorship of its members," Honcoop said. “Key examples include members of Glacier High School's Technology Student Association, FTC RoboScout Squad, FTC Team Eureka's E-Hackers, and FTC Thunder Lab from Columbia Falls.”  

Teams that win at state advance to the FIRST Championship international tournament in Houston April 16-19.   

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or [email protected].