Saturday, December 10, 2005 marked the 7th annual FIRST LEGO League State Competition.
This year's challenge took place in Wheeling, WV at Wheeling Jesuit University.
Twenty teams from around the state were in attendance,
some from Wheeling and others as far away as Mingo and Greenbriar counties.
Many of the students that were in attendance stayed in the same hotel and that made for a fun evening.
Mrs. Hamilton came well prepared with the practice mat and materials,
which offered all students an opportunity to perfect their programs and tweak any last minute robot malfunctions.
We also got an opportunity to eat dinner with a friendly team from Greenbriar county,
The Infra-Reds, lead by Frank Adkins.
The day of competition began at 8 am with team check-in and setup, followed by a meeting of the coaches at 8:30.
After that, the teams had about 45 minutes to make last minute preparations and the first competitors started at 9:15 am.
All the teams competed in a table competition; a project presentation, teamwork and technical interview.
The table competition and the project presentation seemed to be what many of the teams had spent the most effort in preparing.
The timetable was laid out so that 2 teams competed at once while others were doing interviews.
Two teams from the Huntington area participated; the Barboursville
RoboPirates,
a team comprised of students from Barboursville Middle school and
The Robo Geek Squad, another team that consists of students from 4
different elementary/middle schools in the area.
All students were awarded medals of participation and
the Robo Geek Squad walked away with an award in robot performance
and technicality.
The thing that seemed to be so fascinating about the entire day was
watching all the student,
teachers, mentors and parents be one big team.
Everyone helped everyone else.
Many of the teams made nice comments towards our local teams,
congratulating them and commenting on brilliant ideas and �very cool�
T-shirts.
The head judge and announcer was David Brooks
One final part of the competition that had everyone on the edge of
their seats was the call-back period.
Here, the judges called back certain teams to ask them additional questions
about their presentations or interviews.
Not getting a call-back did not mean anything bad,
but it was a nerve racking period as it can be the deciding factor
between a few points.
The day wrapped up with a slide show presentation in the auditorium
in which
the students got to view pictures of themselves throughout the day.
We also viewed the top four research presentation of the day.
All student and coaches were then presented with participation medals
and a pat on the back for a job well done.
Finally though, it was the moment we had all be waiting for, the presentation
of competition awards.
Awards were presented in many categories, some of which included robot
design, team spirit, technicality, and improvement.
The top award, the director's award, which means that team excelled
at all areas, was presented to the Roboteers,
a WVU-sponsored team from Morgantown, WV.
Although not every team walked away with a trophy
the most important part of the competition was the effort that was
put forth to get there.
Every team worked hard to be able to come to the state competition
and many parents
and teachers volunteered the time to see that students were able to
participate and learn from the experience.
There was also a LEGO playroom for younger sibling and attendees.
The LEGO City worked well from there.
Or any where.
You
might want to run your robot or another over the web.
