In robot action the Melrose Middle School Lego League team sucesfully competed at the Boston Unviversity Academy "Food Factor" First Lego League competition within a field of 30 plus other teams from the greater New England area. The iRaiders middle school squad completed all three parts of the competition including a powerpoint project presentation, juding on core values, and competing in multiple rounds of robot competition with Mindstorm based robots. High school for the day was 91 points.
The Lego League program uses legos to explore scientific concepts. This year the theme of the event was to examine the food supply chain and issues that affect the safety of that food chain from havest through to the consumer.
In an the action shot at right Sam and Devontae line up their robot to go rescue pizza and ice cream that are sitting in an unrefridgerated space. Other robot missions included removing bacteria, rescuing a truck with freshly harvested produce, measuring the temperature, cleaning bad bacteria. The team had been meeting twice per week as part of an after school program at the Middle School.
In the words of one parent, "this program has been excellent for my son. He has really become self motivated and actively drives his own participation."