A team of pupils from Years 7-9 have won the Innovation Project at this year’s FIRST LEGO League Challenge, beating off competition from nine other schools at a hotly contested regional tournament at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
The FIRST LEGO League Challenge is an international STEM competition. Alongside the design of a Lego Robot and execution of its mission, students are also set a challenge to research and present an innovation project.
This year’s theme, Archaeology (Unearthed), challenged students to identify a real‑world issue in archaeology and design an innovative solution. The team presented a clear report of an impressive device for excavation that doesn’t disturb surrounding earth. The team’s invention uses an Archimedes screw for propulsion, allowing it to burrow through soil while gently filtering material through a mesh. Equipped with sensors and cameras, it can detect artifacts and clear a safe path for delicate excavation work. Designed to complement technologies such as GPR and LiDAR, this tool helps precisely locate and access underground objects while minimising unnecessary disturbance to surrounding areas.
A confident and well-planned presentation from Justin, Hugo, Caspar, Louis and Artemis guided the judges through their working process from inspiration to research to production, explaining how they had to adapt their thinking and design along the way when encountering any unforeseen difficulties.
The wider Lego Robotics team undertook the robot mission, following weeks of design, planning, coding and construction undertaken at the popular weekly Lego Robotics club.
Teacher of Computer Science and competition supervisor Fotari Modhvadia said: “I am so proud of the team’s fantastic achievement. They worked with imagination, foresight and attention to come up with their brilliant innovation, showing resilience and plasticity of thinking throughout. They demonstrated outstanding collaboration with each other, and having to deliver the presentation to a panel of judges was excellent for their public speaking skills and confidence. I am delighted that their hard work paid off with the Innovation Project award.
“When it came to the Lego robot challenge, the team showed great skill and creative problem-solving when taking on a series of highly technical missions, each requiring exceptional precision and planning. Coding and executing these tasks is incredibly demanding – the smallest adjustment in angle or speed can determine whether a challenge succeeds or fails. Their commitment to refining every detail was evident throughout the competition.”
