WAIMEA — Parker School’s robotics team competed at the Hawaii FIRST LEGO League (FLL) State Championship on Oahu Dec. 1.
“This was the third consecutive year students qualified and participated at the state level, but it was the first time we competed with a team composed entirely of lower school students,” Caroline Landry said, Parker School’s technology teacher and middle and lower school robotics head coach.
The robotics team, named “Galaxy Stars,” consisted of six boys and two girls in grades four and five who had to work together to build, test and program a robot to solve a set of missions on a playing field. This year’s challenge provided by FLL surrounded issues of space exploration and challenged students to think like scientists and engineers.
Galaxy Stars competed in the Robot Game and achieved the school’s best state championship finish to date. Parker School offers three-levels of after-school technology learning: an upper school robotics club, middle school tech club and lower school “Little Techies” club.
FIRST LEGO League is a program by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology.