Issaquah Middle School
2005 FIRST LEGO League Team
Issaquah Middle School Robotics Team Brings Home First Place Trophy for Research Presentation
The Washington State FIRST LEGO League tournament was Saturday, Dec. 3rd, at Highland Middle School in Bellevue, WA.
Thirty-five teams from around the state signed up to compete and thirty-two made it to the event despite the significant snow accumulation in some areas of the state. An estimated 500 competitors and spectators filled the Highland Middle School gymnasium for the all-day event.
The tournament is focused on two competitions: a robotics challenge and a presentation based on a research project on this year's topic: Ocean Odyssey. Awards are given for the best performance in the robot competition and best presentation. Awards are also given in a few other areas, such as robot design, teamwork, and team spirit. The most coveted award is the director's award that recognizes the the top two teams by overall performance in all areas.
The score for the robotics competition is the best score of three rounds in which each team earns points by having its robot complete as many tasks as possible in two and a half minutes. The robots are autonomous, not remote controlled, so every task is challenging.
In three rounds of competition, the IMS team was able to improve its score with each successive run. In the last run, they were able to complete all four major tasks that they had chosen to attempt. The scores were 109, 123 and 150, respectively.
The IMS team placed 16th in the robotics competition, finishing in the top half.
The team also worked very hard on the research and presentation this year. All students contributed research and presentation materials, and spoke in the presentation. (One student was unable to attend the competition, but still contributed to the research, display, and presentation rehearsal.)
The IMS team was honored to be chosen as the first place award winner in the research presentation category. They are the very excited owners of a first place trophy, constructed of LEGOs of course.
The IMS Robotics team members are: Adam, Alex, Austin, Brandon, Brian, Eric, and Henri.
The Issaquah Middle School Robotics team is sponsored by:
- Issaquah High Robotics Team, FIRST Team #1318
- Issaquah Schools Foundation
- Issaquah Middle School ASB
For further information, please contact Tom Saxton.