On November 12, the Ouray Middle School Lego Robotics team, Kids in Black, competed in the Western Slope Regional Championships. They did not make it to the state competition, but they had fun and learned a ton.
According to Coach Cappi Castro, Lego robotics is a cooperative competition in which kids build and program a robot to do missions, present on their robot and the values of the competition, and, prior to the competition, complete a themed community project.
5th grader Bodhi said that the competition went “magnificent.” His favorite part was “being up at the board” (where the robot does its missions). After saying “it's really super fun to do,” Bodhi then animatedly described the missions and tense moments while the robot was competing.
Though the actual event was exciting, Bodhi said, “the biggest part of the competition was interacting with other teams. We were talking with each other, being all friendly” he said, and the other teams were “super friendly.”
6th grader Wolfe shared the joy over the fact that all the teams were “super nice.” He told a story about a team named the Red Hot Challengers and a challenge they had set up for the other teams. “They would give you fireballs, and you would have to eat them in front of them, and they would give you a piece of candy.”
Kids in Black also spent time on their community project, whose theme was energy. “We decided that we would join EcoAction Partners from Telluride and they would help us look at the LED lights in the gym, and also look at simple things around the school to make it more energy efficient.” Ms. Cappi said that she is “so proud of my kids: they are committed to helping their school.”
“We are so appreciative of Pinhead and the Mt. Sneffels Foundation,” Ms. Cappi said. They support the team's participation so that “we can just concentrate on the robotics and the other pieces.”
The kids are looking forward to next year. “I feel like this next year, since I saw all the mistakes we made this year, next year I can work on those mistakes,” said Wolfe. Bodhi said that “we already have a good robot” and “also, we know what we need to do next year.”