LIMESTONE Coast schools have been preparing brick by brick for the regional South East Lego League.
Last Friday, Reidy Park Primary School held its first interschool Lego League finals, with three teams competing against each other to progress to the regional final decider.
For the third consecutive year, Reidy Park Primary School students will participate in the creative competition, with children constructing a Lego robot to complete a series of challenges and a research project on space exploration.
“This task required much planning and preparation on the students’ behalf, including a commitment to working on their project during weekly after school sessions,” senior leader and primary learning improvement representative Lesley Okholm said.
“We have an emerging focus on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) as we believe these subjects allow students to apply knowledge and develop critical thinking skills even at a younger age.”
This year’s research topic involved forming a physical or social problem humans face during long-term space exploration, providing a great opportunity for students to form creative ideas.
“Students have put a great deal of effort into the school project, with team names ranging from Galaxy Girls to NASA Bumblebees, Osteoporostars and Masstronauts and additional corresponding costumes and dances,” Reidy Park Primary Year 6 teacher and Lego League representative Jess Magarey said.
“We have heard topics ranging from ‘what happens to your muscles and bones while in space’ to ‘what happens when astronauts get lonely in space, how do humans wash their hair in space and how can humans explore Mars in a suit?’
“They then had to come up with a solution to their question, which is where the research comes into it.”
Lego League involves schools internationally, with all communities adapting their own unique concept.
“It is a great opportunity to form relationships with other regional school communities and students can create social networks outside of just Reidy Park Primary School,” Ms Magarey said.
“As a compulsory whole class project, we find students enjoy the experience, but are also learning at the same time.
“It’s been really interesting watching the students work together, because that is quite often what children find really difficult.”
Students are judged on a range of core values, including teamwork, fun, inclusion and an overarching umbrella of gracious professionalism.
“Evaluators are out in the ‘pits’ watching how the teams interact and seeing how they present themselves as a team,” Ms Okholm said.
“We are competing against each other, but we still need to have support and work as a whole team.
“We will look at the teams at break times and that can be their undoing.”
Students are looking forward to the regional event and excited to showcase the hard work they have put into their project.
“We are excited about getting closer with one another and working as a team, much more than we usually do,” Year 6 student Ella said.
“Coding was very hard, we used our computer to create different mechanisms to move our robot, including ‘move tank’ and ‘rotate tank’.”
With 34 teams involved in the regional competition so far, the Main Corner will be full of students ranging from Year 5 to Year 10 for the event on November 19.
