A determined Colfe’s Lego Robotics team took part in the fiercely contested First Lego League competition shortly before half-term, scooping a Judge’s Trophy for perseverance in the process.
The team, comprising Year 8 pupils Ben, Philip, Justin, Hugo and Caspar, and Year 10 pupil Emily, battled against six other schools in the regional heat. The competition, hosted by the University of Greenwich, challenged the teams to code and build their Lego robot, before a nail-biting race against the clock at the Robot Game table where their robots had to navigate and complete robot game missions. Teams also delivered presentations to the judges about their robot.
LEGO Robotics, a combination of LEGO building blocks and robotics technology to create and program robots, is an increasingly popular activity, and is a lively and creative extra-curricular club at the senior school.
First Lego League is an international competition, created in a collaboration between LEGO Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and inventor and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) founder Dean Kamen.
Head of Computer Science Katy Walsh said: “Lego Robotics is a fantastic activity that develops critical skills in a fun way. As well as encouraging STEM learning and improving knowledge of coding and engineering, it develops problem-solving and analytical skills. Working as a team also helps boost collaborative skills, and teamwork was very much in evidence for our team at this competition. They worked together brilliantly and it was great to see their robot in action. Although our team didn’t progress to the national final, we are very proud that they were awarded a special Judge’s trophy.”
