Bend 4-H LEGO robotics team honored at state tourney

The Oregon University System (OUS) is pleased to announce that the Bend team Girls On Fire! proudly took home a 1st Place Google Presentation Award at the 13th annual Intel® Oregon FIRST® LEGO League Championship Tournaments, presented by Rockwell Collins, held on January 18-19 at Liberty High School in Hillsboro.

This event brought together 119 teams from across the state and region who have excelled in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) pre-engineering program, a program which helps young students begin exploring technical fields and careers at an early age.

Oregon boasts one of the largest youth robotics programs for its population in the
country, and education and industry representatives are delighted by this burgeoning youth interest in technology and engineering.

The theme for this year’s tournaments was “Nature’s Fury,” which prompted each team to tie their technology interests into a contemporary issue, and to research and develop an innovative solution to prepare for or respond to a natural disaster.

Girls On Fire! is a team of seven girls affiliated with 4H-Deschutes County, and is coached by Molly Slough. Team members include Katie Slough, Maryanne Slough, Martha Schwarz, Heather Davenport, Teaghan Knox, Kinsey Popham, and Brenna Popham.

For their research project, the team focused on attachments for fire fighter boots to help mop-up crews. The attachments detect hot spots and have a sprinkler system to cool them down.

When asked what they were most proud of, the team members said they were very proud of their project, their core values, and the benefits of being a team such as meeting each other. They also loved learning how to program, and at least one team member already wants to be an engineer.

For the last 13 years, the Oregon Robotics Tournament & Outreach Program (ORTOP) has offered the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL), one of several successful STEM education initiatives that are supported by OUS.

Oregon technology corporations and industry associations collaborate with the OUS, hundreds of volunteers, and major youth organizations to implement the program. This weekend’s tournaments brought together 119 teams, which represented the top teams from around Oregon and SW Washington who excelled at qualifying tournaments in December.

Each team of 9-14 year olds constructed and programmed their LEGO robot to compete on various robot missions, presented research on this year’s theme, and demonstrated their work to three panels of judges.

In December, over 3,300 students on 472 teams participated in qualifying tournaments in Oregon and SW Washington, including teams from home schools, public schools, private schools, and local communities. The top 25% of these teams competed at the weekend’s championships.

Each team is made up of four to ten students ages 9-14 who are given about 12 weeks to prepare for the tournament, including construction, design, and programming of a small robot, and completion of the required scientific research.

The teams used off-the-shelf LEGO robotics kits to construct working robots, each of which is customized uniquely. On tournament day, the teams compete with their robots, with the goal to complete as many simulated natural disaster missions as possible on a 4-foot by 8-foot playing field, present and discuss aspects of their research with judges, and showcase their teamwork skills.

Bruce Schafer, director of industry affairs for OUS, said “This weekend’s teams were so impressive; I have no doubt that Oregon’s top future engineers and scientists were among us. Congratulations to all team members and coaches for the many hours preparing for and participating in this weekend’s tournaments. Tremendous thanks to our title sponsor, Intel, to all our corporate and community sponsors,
and to the hundreds of tireless mentors and volunteers who have helped hundreds of students discover their interests in technology.”

ORTOP thanks its generous sponsors for this event, including Intel, the title sponsor; Rockwell Collins, the presenting sponsor; Google/Tides Foundation and OUS, platinum sponsors; BPA, Garmin, IBM, Tektronix, Vernier, gold sponsors; ONAMI, phtech, and Timbercon, silver sponsors; as well as all its supporting community sponsors and volunteers. For more information on the program and the top awards, go to www.ortop.org/fll.