Baldwinsville students showcase STEM skills at Lego League’s Challenge

January 24, 2024

More than 60 Baldwinsville Central School District elementary and middle school students participated in the FIRST Lego League’s Challenge, a robotics competition, on Saturday at McEvoy BOCES in Cortland. 

For the first time, each of our elementary schools and our 6th graders at Ray Middle School had teams participate in the competition. The teams competed against students from several local elementary and middle schools. 

Our teams of student engineers have designed, built and coded Lego robots to compete against students from several local elementary and middle schools. FIRST Lego League is an international, inquiry-based program that teaches students, ages 9-14, about science, technology and collaboration. The local challenge is in its third year and is organized by OCM BOCES.

Our team from Elden Elementary School, which was coached by Kim Hunt, won an award for the second year in a row. The team brought home the Breakthrough Award. This awards celebrates a team that made significant progress in their confidence and capability in both the Robot Game and Innovation Project and are a shrining ensemble of excellent Core Values. The team demonstrated that they understand that what they discover is more important than what they win. 

Our team from Van Buren Elementary School, which was led by coaches Sarah Youngman and Carmen Malagisi, won the Rising All-Star Award. This award celebrates a team that the judges notice and expert great things form in the future. 

Students had to build their robots in advance of the competition. Each robot had to complete a series of missions at the event. Judges evaluate the robots and the research behind each project. Each team also spends time explaining their project during a presentation portion of the event.

Great job to all our students!