St. Mark’s Robotics Takes Third in State Lego Championship

The St. Mark’s robotics team, RoboRoar, won the Robot Performance Award and third place in the overall FIRST LEGO League State Championship.

“This is a huge accomplishment for our team of fifth graders who were competing against teams of seventh and eighth graders,” said Stewart Mayer, Makerspace director and robotics team sponsor. “It has been a long six-month journey with quite a surprise ending.”

In the competition, teams had to plan and build a robot out of Legos to accomplish certain tasks. RoboRear earned a spot in the state competition due to performing well in the regional qualifier earlier this year and competed virtually against the top 50 teams statewide due to spring break scheduling conflicts.

“Perseverance was key to the team’s success,” said Dr. Stephen Harder, head coach and father of team member Elliot Harder. “Small, early successes in the season inspired the boys to gain confidence and work even harder. Each competition, they moved up in the rankings and by mid-season, they set a goal to compete with the top teams in the state.”

The FLL program consists of four parts: the robot game, an innovation project, a presentation, and a core values evaluation.

The robot game, which RoboRoar won, often attracts the most excitement. A field is set up on a 4-by-8-foot table with various missions to complete. Each mission has two associated points, and the team that earns the most points within a two-and-a-half-minute time limit wins. The task requires teamwork, programming skills, and robot-building skills to create a bot that can achieve multiple missions.

“My favorite part of the program was seeing our robot work,” Elliot said. “When that run goes perfectly, it’s like, ‘Yes, it worked!'”

The RoboRoar team members are students Taj Clayton, Atlas Diep, Henry Franklin, John Griggs, Elliot Harder, Ryan Jarratt, and Ritam Setu; coach Dr. Stephen Harder; and program sponsors Stewart Mayer and Dr. Dan Lipin, biology teacher.