JMS FIRST Lego League Team Headed to World Festival

Congratulations to the Jefferson Middle School FIRST Lego League teams. The Atomic Eagles, JMS Master Builders, and RadioActive Brix participated in the East Tennessee State Championship on Saturday, February 10, 2018 and performed well. The JMS Master Builders earned the 1st Place Robot Mechanical Design trophy. The Atomic Eagles earned the First Place Champions trophy and will represent Tennessee at the World Festival in Houston, Texas in April.

Please congratulate the following students:

Team C.A.T.S, a home based team consisting of all Jefferson Middle School students, earned the First Place Gracious Professionalism trophy. Please congratulate the following students:

The Disco Robots, a home based team with one member attending JMS, earned the the First Place Robot Strategy and Innovation trophy and the Second Place Robot Performance trophy in a three way tie for highest robot score.

The Atomic Eagles (team #336) with team members Ben Dallas, Aaron Fiscor, Lindsey Fiscor, Aaliyah Herron, Marissa Kenworthy, Amelie Nagle, Brian Qu, and Alex Shanafield, finished the robot challenge game with a high score of 145 and won the first place overall Champions Award. The Atomic Eagles will represent Jefferson Middle School and Tennessee at the FIRST LEGO World Championships in Houston, Texas, on April 18-21, 2018. The team coaches are Janie Shanafield and David Hundermark and the team mentor is Harold Shanafield.

FIRST Lego League began in 1999 and sponsors international competitions for students ages 9-14. The World Championship competitions are in the spring, and teams from more than 50 countries compete in the areas of research, robot design, robot performance, and core values. Core values presentations demonstrate how the team has incorporated the eight core values set forth by FIRST into their team and life as a middle school student.

The annual FIRST Lego League theme is the basis of the research project. This year’s theme was “HydroDynamics.” Each team spent months developing a research project relating to how we find, transport, use, or dispose of water.  The Atomic Eagles titled their project, “Solar Distiller for Kenya.” The Master Builders titled their project, “Hydroponics in Brackish Water.” The RadioActive Brix titled their project, “Water Print” – an app that tracks a family’s home water and gives suggestions for conservation (visit WaterPrint.org). Each team presented ideas with a skit and answered questions about the project for the judges. For Robot Design, team members described their robot and Lego Mindstorms EV3 programs to judges. They explained why and how they built their robot, the functions of the robot, and elements they incorporated over the course of the season. The Robot Game consisted of three 2:30 minute rounds. Each team’s robot was to autonomously navigate obstacles and perform tasks on the board. Students spent months designing, building, and programming their robot.

FIRST Lego League is a program that truly addresses the 4 C’s: Creativity, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Collaboration. Students incorporated the 4 Cs through the robot game, project, and core values competitions. A team of 2-10 students used their creativity when designing the robot and solving missions, and solving the problem based on the annual theme. Students used communication skills when sharing their project and robot with both judges and the community and amongst themselves while preparing for competition. The FIRST Lego League program includes both problem-based learning (PBL) and science technology engineering, and math (STEM) skills in one extracurricular program.