Walking in on a LEGO robotics competition team may simply seem like kids having fun with LEGOs, but these students are not just playing with these LEGOs. They are competing and continuing to learn after months of hard work, preparation, and practice.

This past December 8, 9, and 15, the two sixth grade and one seventh grade LEGO Robotics teams advanced to one of the three Illinois state competitions in Elgin, Illinois.

Parker’s teams competed in the FIRST Lego League (FLL), a global competition for students ages 9 to 14 with more than 40,000 teams worldwide. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade all have teams in the FLL. The program at Parker is headed by 4th-8th Grade STEAM and Coding Teacher Adam Colestock. “It was designed as a way to try to promote kids getting excited about engineering,” Colestock said.

The FLL program is not just about robots. The teams meet once a week after school for two hours to create functioning robots using LEGO Mindstorm robot kits that compete on a table-top playing field. They also design projects centered around a designated theme, such as recycling, water, or energy. These projects are general solutions to a problem related to the FLL year’s theme, such as pollution, climate change, or water cleanliness.

The teams’ robot must complete missions on an eight-by-twelve-foot table. Challenges require the robot to activate a mechanism made of LEGO without human help, such as pushing a lever or turning a wheel. Each challenge successfully completed earns a specific amount of points that is varied for each challenge. In Illinois, each team has four months to design and build their robot, as well as create their theme-centered project for their first competition.

The first stage of competitions are known as qualifying tournaments and have around 16 teams competing. From these, four to eight teams qualify to move on to the state level of competition. At qualifying tournaments, teams are judged on three topics: the performance and design of their robot, their theme-related project, and the team’s ‘Core Values,’ which include teamwork, inclusion, and fun.

The qualifying tournaments that the teams attended all took place at schools in the Chicago area. “Over the course of the day, they [the teams] had four table runs and three interviews, and they’re just sort of moving from one thing to the next,” said Colestock when discussing the qualifying tournaments.

“You have the three ten-minute interviews where you are talking to a panel of two or three judges. There’s one for robot design, one for Core Values, and one for the design project,” said Colestock. “Then you also have four table runs, where you have two-and-a-half minutes to try and score as many points as you can at the mission table with your robot.”

One of Parker’s sixth-grade teams, ‘Flying With Pigs’, won the Judge’s Award. This award is given to a team that stands out for reasons other than the Core Award categories. The other sixth-grade team, ‘Orbital Octopi,’ won the Champion’s Award. This award is given to the best overall team. The seventh-grade team, ‘Masteroids,’ won an award for the design of their robot. All sixth and seventh-grade teams progressed to the state tournament that is taking place this January at Elgin Community College.

But Colestock sees more in the program and competition than just winning. “The spirit is that you’re there to be able to learn from others and share with others even if everything didn’t fall into place on that particular day at that particular tournament to win an award or be able to advance to state,” Colestock said. “Because FLL is available to students for all three years of middle school, Colestock sees lots of potential for growth and development in the students’ skills during that time.

Sixth-grader and team Orbital Octopi member Beckett Selikow said is looking forward to attending the state tournament later this month. “I had lots of fun and I enjoy doing it,” Selikow said. “I like working with my team and coming up with cool solutions to problems. I like everything about it!”

FLL has been in the Middle School at Parker since 2007 when it was just one team for the entire Middle School. Colestock attributes the growth in interest in the program in part to a growing societal interest in robotics. “When you look at society and culture in general, there is just more and more robotics,” Colestock said. But that growth does come at a price, mainly being the far bigger time commitment required by coaches of the program.

Sixth Grade Assistant Teacher Adrian Leo coaches the two sixth grade teams. “As a coach for me it is more work, but it’s enjoyable,” Leo said. “I like getting to have two different teams that are both going about things in their own way because it opens me up to different ideas and different ways of doing things.”

Still, Colestock is happy to see the program continue to grow. “It’s exciting and it’s overwhelming because I started out as sort of just the coach … and now I’m a bit more of the coordinator,” Colestock said. “We have other teams that are being coached by other people, so it requires a little bit more time and a little bit more responsibility. But it’s definitely really gratifying to see it grow.”