Third graders win trophy at LEGO Competition

Competing as the youngest team ever to enter the robotic competition known as LEGO League, four Hawken third graders won one of 13 trophies distributed December 9 at a state regional tournament in Toledo. Twenty-eight teams competed for 13 awards and the bragging rights to represent the region in the state finals early next year. Hawken had a total of seven girls competing in the competition, where players from ages 9 through 14 build LEGO robots that they then program to undertake a series of. The four third graders, coached by Hawken School parents Laurie and Matthew Heikkila, were Erica Bucchieri, Hannah Friedman, Dana Heikkila and Fiona Lightbody. Other Hawken students participating in the competition under the Heikkilas included Anna Lowenstein, Kate Anagnostos and Megan Heikkila, all sixth graders. All of the girls worked as teams for several months in preparing for the competition, which was held at a Toledo high school. The tournament began at 8:30 a.m. and concluded with the award ceremony at 3 p.m. During the ceremony, the third graders received special attention when the judges, in announcing that they were the youngest girls ever to compete in the five years since the competition began, called on them to come publicly recall for the more than 300 people in attendance what they took away from their experience. Sharing the microphone, each girl expressed a strong interest in participating again next year. The theme of the 2006 competition was Nano Quest, where teams were challenged to explore nanotechnology and the solutions this newest frontier of science can make possible in the fields of medicine and technology. The topic was presented in terms understandable to elementary and middle school students, all of whom, regardless of age, faced identical time and materials limitations in competition for the top prizes. The LEGO robots are built and programmed entirely by the students. The robots function on a pre-designed game board where a series of challenges are required; scoring is based on how well each team and their robots complete each task on the board, in the limited amount of time. Teams also receive points for oral presentations on robot construction, research, creativity and innovation. Total points determine which seven teams advance to the state finals in Dayton and, ultimately, nationals in Atlanta.