Por-Q-Bots Earn Top Trophy for Project Research

On Saturday, Feb 6, the Nashua Por-Q-Bots team competed in the State's First Lego League Championship in Bozeman. There the team was judged in four different categories: Robot Game, Robot Design, Core Values and Project. In the Robot Game portion, the kids have 2.5 minutes to complete as many missions as they can on a game board, and they take the best score out of 3 rounds. For the other three categories, the students go to judging all by themselves, no coaches are allowed to go with them. They explain to the judges how and why they programmed their robots in Robot Design. They then complete a team building exercise and talk to the judges about the 8 Core Values. And finally they present an innovative solution to a real-world problem that has to do with the theme of year; this year's theme was Trash Trek.

The team, consisting of five 5th graders and two 7th graders (M.E. Cunningham, Kaitlyn Miller, Alexis Murdock, Xander Pugh, Kevan Viste, Devin Fromdahl, and Kaydin Sibley) began the season back in June during an inaugural, week-long Por-Q-Bots Camp.  During the camp the members had to build a new robot, veterans taught new members how to program the robot, and they all practiced their core values.  Regular season practices began in October.  For four hours every Sunday, the team began working on their Robot Game.  They decided what parts of the game board they wanted to focus on, who would program what mission, and each pair began programming.  After school practices began in mid-November and that's when the real work began.  They researched, Skyped with a drone expert in Michigan, wrote their skit, and perfected their Robot Game.

As a result of their hard work the Por-Q-Bots did an amazing job at competition this year. Their top round in the robot game scored a whopping 266 points. They came out of judging extremely confident as they were able to talk about all of their successes, and all of the times that they had to work to fix mistakes, like when the coaches forgot to pack the frame that helped place their robot during the game and they had to build a new one on the fly. Finally, they presented their innovative solution, R1D2, the recycling delivery drone to the judges and were told that their idea was "Genius."

We are so proud of the amazing work that the Por-Q-Bots have done this season. They competed against 61 other teams, including 13 teams from Billings and Missoula each, and even seven teams from Eureka.  Against all that amazing competition, they came home with a first place trophy for Project Research. We had an amazing trip which not only included a full day of competition on Saturday, but also visiting the Museum of the Rockies, shopping at the mall, eating at Famous Dave's and swimming at the hotel. We can't wait to see what this amazing group of students can do next year! Go Por-Q-Bots!