On February 11th, the Ann Richards School hosted its first Central Texas FIRST LEGO League Challenge qualifier. Twenty-eight teams of 4th to 8th graders from all around the Austin area, along with the Ann Richards School’s own FIRST LEGO League team, Ursa Minor, competed for a spot to advance to the Central Texas Area Championship. Students from Westlake High School, Westwood High School, Cedar Park High School, and LASA, as well as the Girl Scouts of Central Texas, converged on the Ann Richards School campus with the Ann Richards School’s own First Tech Challenge team, Ursa Major, to help run the event as referees and queuers. These high school students also ran a demonstration of their own robots to inspire the elementary and middle school students to continue with STEM and Robotics in high school.
The competition involved teams utilizing their own EV3, or Spike Prime Lego Robots, that they programmed to run autonomously to solve 15 unique missions related to this year’s Super Powered theme. Students also practiced the Engineering Design Process and learned about different ways to generate power to solve a problem in their community. The season will culminate with the World Championships in Houston, with over 100 teams from around the world competing on April 19th – 21st.
