Wis. students compete in regional competition using LEGO-based robots

JANESVILLE, Wis. (WMTV) - Twenty-nine teams from across Southern Wisconsin gathered in Janesville Saturday for the ‘Wisconsin FIRST LEGO League’ regional tournament.

Each team, consisting of 10 students in grades 4-8 has been working on their innovation projects and robots since the beginning of the school year.

“We have to go to the judging room, and we have to show them our innovation project about our core values, innovation project, and our robot design, a fifth grader with Roosevelt Elementary School in Janesville said. “And then we go three rounds on a robot table which has all these missions that only a robot could solve.”

The tournament’s theme was art this year. Students were asked to find a problem and innovative solution that highlights the role that STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) plays in the arts.

Fifth graders at Roosevelt Elementary School said they are trying to find a way to share their passion, volleyball, with people who are visually impaired or blind.

“Things can be very stressful at the start, but once you get doing it more and more, and the more you get to know your team, it gets to be really fun and you kind of make a life-long friendship,” another fifth grader with Roosevelt Elementary’ s team said.

Saturday, teams got to present their masterpieces to judges, in hopes of being one of nine teams to move onto the state sectionals.

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