Congratulations to the ‘Robo Rollers’ who are on their way to Sydney to compete in the First Lego League Australian National Championship on 10th December 2016. The team of Year 5 and 6 girls were runner-up at the state championship held at Curtin University on 27th November. They also won the ‘Inspiration Award’ trophy for their display of teamwork.
The Robo Rollers team members are Ellie Coplin, Laila Peacock, Grace Perks, Kailani Foster, Tivvya Pillay, Alyssa Bester and Hayley Greig.
Check out their website www.savetheturtleswa.weebly.com.
The First Lego League competition is open to 9-16 year olds. Challenges require teams to build, program and compete with a robot, while also learning about a modern problem in science and engineering and developing solutions for it.
This year’s theme is ‘Animal Allies’ and explores the relationship between humans and animals. Teams are required to work together to research the theme and present their ideas on developing solutions to problems they have identified in society to the judging panel. The tournaments are run with the feel of a sporting event, and teams are given points for teamwork, cooperation and gracious professionalism.
The Robo Rollers project is all about the Green Sea Turtles eating plastic bags because they look like jellyfish, and dying as a result of starvation. Their innovative solution was to educate and encourage the community to tie knots in plastic bags to stop them blowing into our oceans. They shared this with the community by creating a sticker with their logo, ‘Tie so we don’t die’ and a QR code linked to the World Wildlife Fund, ‘Adopt a Turtle’ initiative’. They handed out the stickers to students in the Primary School and spoke to managers of shopping centres and the Chair of ‘Keep Australia Beautiful’ about their solution.
We wish the team all the best for Sydney!