Robotics and FBHonors at Champion Elementary
Champion Elementary’ s Robotics Clubs involve 40 students and they meet on Mondays and Thursdays after school. Fourth and fifth grade groups begin in August and consist of two divisions. We have a club that meets for one hour and an honors’ group that meets for an additional hour to prepare for local robotics competitions. In January, first through third grade robotics groups meet on alternating Mondays.
In Robotics Club, the fourth and fifth graders collaborate, and problem solve to complete academic challenges in Minecraft, Code.org, EV3 Mindstorms, Excel, roller coaster kits, and with LEGOS.
Champion FBHonors program takes part in FIRST Lego League, where they are involved in theme-based challenges completing research, problem solving, coding of EV3 Mindstorms robots, and engineering. Their entire season revolves around FIRST Core Values, which emphasize teamwork, discovery, and innovation. This year, the team’s theme was “City Shapers” and the questions that guided them were, “What if you could build a better world? Where would you begin? The team came up with a problem in their own community related to the topic, researched it, interviewed Civic Engineers, and created an innovative solution which they presented to the judges at competition. Students in this club also had to build, test and program autonomous robots to solve predetermined missions at competition. They called themselves Robo Revolution and they made Champion extremely proud!
Our two, FIRST LEGO League Junior, teams are Champion’s youngest Robotics Club students. They too are part of a theme-based challenge where they problem solve, code with WeDo 2.0’s, and engineer solutions to present at an FLLjr Expo in May. This year’s theme is “Boomtown Build.” The goal for our two teams of first through third graders, involves research and collaboration so they can build a structure that is 1. Easy for all people in the community to use, 2. Friendly for the planet, and 3. Very durable. Their LEGO structure must include a crane, or elevator, and have at least one motorized part programmed with their robot. When it’s time to present to the judges, these teams must also describe how they implemented Core Values, including Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork, and Fun! This time of year, our third graders who have been in the junior club become honorary members of the Honors’ Club in preparation for their competition next year.
