A Poway-area robotics team, comprised of children ages 10 to 14, won the First Lego League Southern California Championship held Dec. 12 at Poway High School.
The team, MC2, beat out 152 San Diego teams at the qualifying tournament as well as 49 regional competitors, and will compete in the international championship in Arkansas in May.
The First Lego League is an international competition that teaches kids teamwork, inclusion, innovation, how to impact their community and how to discover new things, organizers said. It also teaches kids how to have fun and enjoy the work they put into their robot.
“The initial challenge, as posed by the First competition guidelines, was to create a system that would improve future transport of materials, making shipping more efficient and sustainable,” said John McCague of Poway, the MC2 team’s adult coach. “Our team took it up a notch, tackling the issue of plastic trash and its impacts on both shipping and the natural environment.”
The seven-member team, which consists of children who attend charter schools in Poway, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos and Escondido, competed in four elements: Innovation Project, Robot Performance Game, Robot Design and Core Values.
In the innovation project, the team was asked to solve cargo problems. The team created and operated a prototype robotics system aimed at reducing plastic waste and the shipping associated with plastic dumping around the world. Additionally, the team designed and built a robot to solve challenges within a table competition and collaborated with other teams to share ideas and strategies.
Konrad Sleipness, 11, of Poway, one of the members of MC2, works on a project in preparation for the championships.
(Courtesy photo )
The team’s project demonstrates how shipping can be significantly reduced by recycling and the reuse of plastic bottles as material for 3-D printing of items for home or business use, team leaders said.
MC2 cut plastic bottles into strips, which are reformed into filament that is fed into a 3-D printer. Team members nicknamed the project the Bubba Shredder. (Bubba is the name the team gave to a plastic water bottle, which has become their unofficial mascot for the competition.)
Team members began their project in August, meeting in person for an average of three times a week and spending at least 10 hours together. The team also met each week for individual research, programming and other tasks.
The team was mentored by members of Poway High School’s robotics team, Team Spyder.
“The team members felt an ethical responsibility to address the ‘lesser known’ cargo problem of shipping recyclables overseas, thus contributing to the cargo export industry with a desire to localize the consumption loop of plastic waste,” said MC2 member Chloe Raya-Ortiz, 14, of Rancho Bernardo.
They also received guidance from EDCO Escondido, 3D Printing Solutions, Precious Plastics, The Classical Academy, Boeing Aerospace and 3D HQ, as well as financial support from Financial Cornerstone Inc. and AMP-Optics.
“We received valuable coaching from EDCO,” said MC2 team member Jillian Smith, 12 of Escondido. “They showed us how 4.3 billion pounds of plastics are shipped from the U.S. all around the world each year, and how 79% of that plastic is buried in landfills or dumped in the ocean rather than recycled.”
In announcing the winner of the competition, FIRST officials noted that the “robotics experience is more than building robots or attending competitions.
“It may draw you in with the robot but most importantly, it is defined by how the children unite to form a team,” officials said. “First Lego League impacts each of you as individuals and as team members. The Champion’s Award celebrates the ultimate. It measures how the children inspire others about the accessibility and the excitement of science, technology, engineering, and math while demonstrating respect, encouragement, and continued gracious professionalism.”
Team MC2 will be attending the international level of the competition to be held at the University of Arkansas from May 19-22. Organizers expect more than 80 teams to compete at the Razorback Open Invitational, representing students from throughout North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Africa.
MC2 members are planning their next steps for competition, which will include fundraising for travel. For more information on MC2, visit the team’s website at https://sites.google.com/view/fll-robotics-teammc2.
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