Advancing to the upcoming Central Texas Lego Meet, the Barton Contaminator Terminators include (back, left to right) coaches Melissa Garraway and Katie Campbell, mentors Kevin Wartenburg and Anita Theriot and Coach Susie Kana; (center, left to right) mentor Heather Wartenburg, Clay Theriot, team mascot Daniel Garraway, Juan Tiu, Ryan Hiller, Stevie Peralta; (front, left to right) Norah Wartenburg, Zachary Johnson, Jacob Arthur, Sam Pullis and Jonathan Gilliam. (Photos by Jim Cullen)
The Dahlstrom Middle School Lego Mustangs (back, left to right) Garrett Fisher, Thomas Farrell, Adam Zamrik, Jacob Moore, Sean Moore; (center) Jarod Bessey; (front) Mollie Holloway earned a trip to the regional First Lego League meet. The team is coached by Aaron Higdon.
by JIM CULLEN
The excitement of a FIRST Lego League qualifying tournament ran through a local site for the first time recently, the shouts of triumph and peals of laughter from its enthusiastic entrants casting the setting in an appropriately fun, and academic, light. Lehman High School was the first time Hays CISD host of a qualifying FLL meet, a competition at which several schools’ teams earned the right to compete in the upcoming Central Texas FLL Meet. Both local participating teams – one from Barton Middle School, the other from Dahlstrom Middle School – earned one of the coveted “golden tickets” to advance.
FIRST Lego League was designed “to encourage interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Core values of gracious professionalism and cooperation are extremely important. Emphasis is not on winning, but what is learned.” A quick summary of what it means to students is “a robotics program for 9 to 14-year-olds, which is designed to get students excited about science and technology.”
Excited they were at the local qualifying meet, both the Barton Contaminator Terminators and the Dahlstrom Lego Mustangs did their sparring with their competitors in good fun and shared enthusiasm.
When it was over, a throng of students excited about science and math covered the floor of the Lehman gym, waiting for the news on who would advance to the up-coming regional meet and a chance to go on to national competition. The wait was worth it for both the Terminators and Mustangs, both teams grabbing a golden ticket to advance. Barton’s Terminators took a first in Research Project and a second in Robot Missions. Dahlstrom’s Mustangs took first in Robot Design.
