BY KARISSA MILLER

Building robots and programming them to complete tasks may seem like a daunting task.

It involves engineering, technology and creativity, but for a group of Iredell-Statesville middle and elementary school robotics teams it’s just a friendly competition.

On Thursday and Friday, robotics teams from different schools gathered at Unity Center in Statesville to use their knowledge of robots to compete against their peers using LEGO robots they built to complete missions during the districtwide First LEGO league competition.

The FIRST Lego League is an international competition for elementary and middle school students. Each year the contest focuses on a different real-world topic related to the sciences. Each challenge within the competition revolves around that theme.

The robotic portion involves designing and programming Lego robots to complete tasks. The teams use LEGO Mindstorms kits to build their robots, which will then negotiate a playing field or table. Each robot is only allowed to use a certain number of sensors and motors.

There are four main sections of the competition: robot table performance, research presentation award, robot design award and teamwork award.

The Champion’s Award or overall winning team was Sassy Robots from Coddle Creek Elementary and Mario Bros. from West Middle School. These students will be recognized at the May 10 school board meeting.

The 2023 Robotics Competition Awards and the respective categories are as follows:

Core Values Awards

Gracious Professionalism
♦ Elementary: Techno Dolphins, Lake Norman
♦ Middle: Nuclear Eggplants, North Iredell

Inspiration
♦ Elementary: Electric Grovers, Union Grove
♦ Middle: The Glasses, East Iredell

Teamwork
♦ Elementary: Da Dabbing Robots, Coddle Creek
♦ Middle: Big Caratz, East Iredell

Project Awards

Research
♦ Elementary: Robo Owls, Harmony
♦ Middle: Overcode, West Iredell

Innovative Solution
♦ Elementary: Robo Chics, Celeste Henkel
♦ Middle: Fire Chickens, Brawley

Presentation
♦ Elementary: Techno Dragons, Lake Norman
♦ Middle: Phoenix Bot Botics, Brawley

Robot Awards

Mechanical Design
♦ Elementary: J. Jay, Celeste Henkel
♦ Middle: Tesla Tumblers, West Iredell

Programming
♦ Elementary: The Other Guys, Coddle Creek
♦ Middle: Bananas, North Iredell

Strategy and Innovation
♦ Elementary: The Blazers, Troutman
♦ Middle: Wireless, Oakwood

Robot Performance
♦ Elementary: LegoMatics, Central
♦ Middle: Overcode, West Iredell

Judges Awards

Against All Odds
♦ Elementary: Renewable Renegades, Cloverleaf
♦ Middle: Monkiez, East Iredell

Rising Star
♦ Elementary: Extreme Energizers, Cloverleaf
♦ Middle: Trip Trap Trios, East Iredell

The Champion’s Award 
♦ Elementary: Sassy Robots, Coddle Creek
♦ Middle: Mario Bros., West Iredell

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