Mountain View and C.S. Lewis Academy groups cap successful season

HILLSBORO — The Mountain View and C.S. Lewis Academy middle school robotics teams wrapped up successful seasons with solid showings at the Oregon FIRST Lego League 2014 Championship Tournament Saturday at Liberty High School.

Neither team received an award for their efforts, but both scored well in the robot challenge portion of the event.

CSLA’s Lord of the Bricks squad scored 185 points on the first of its three runs to place in the top 20, while the Average Joes of Mountain View finished 23rd with a high score of 170 points, which it tallied on its second run.

“We’ve had a long time on the robot, but programming for this course is really tough since it’s so narrow and we’re using a wider robot,” Drake Garver of Average Joes said. “So it was really difficult to program it.”

While the robot’s performance didn’t quite live up to their expectations, Average Joes team members said the rest of the competition went really well.

Average Joes was especially pleased with the presentation of its project, which involved researching and tailoring personal finance for teenagers. The team also created a website and mobile application to share the information and demonstrated their products for the judges.

In the end, team member Quentin Comus said the season was a fun journey, even if the team didn’t bring home any hardware from the state competition.

“As a team, we’ve really bonded,” Comus said.

The Lord of the Bricks gave a spirited presentation (which can be seen on YouTube) of their hand-washing project. The students researched and experimented with bacteria and created a public education campaign at the school.

“From the qualifying tournament to the state tournament, they actually did a lot more,” CSLA science teacher and coach Pam Chambers said. “We went to Willow Place assisted living community and we shared it with the high school and the teachers. We also went to the preschool, the learning center, and shared it with them. We put up posters in all the bathrooms that we visited so that they would have a reminder. They really put forth a lot of effort to share what they learned.”

With students ranging from sixth- to eighth-grade participating at different points during the season, the Lord of the Bricks were a young team. Chambers said he believes they can build upon their success next year, as several have already expressed interest in getting a jump start on the project this spring.

“The core of the team really consisted of four sixth graders and one seventh grader,” Chambers said. “There was a lot of flux just with illnesses and different circumstances, so I was really pleased we made it to state and pleased with their attitude. They wanted to keep working.”

Written by: Seth Gordon