Each team presented its project to Jr. FLL judges and to parents and other adults. The judges asked students questions about various aspects of their projects and reviewed the models, the laptop computer programs used and the team's display boards.
Ziolkowski has some new help this year in the form of Dallin Lake, 10, an assistant coach and fifth grade GALACTIC student. He takes charge of the students easily, directing them to tasks or asking them questions about their processes and he never appears nervous.
"The students all drew their own plans and they combined them into one great plan so as you can see, it's all of their work," Lake told the judges.
“He takes the fifth grade robotics class at GALACTIC on Mondays, then he helps on Thursday mornings with the junior FLL teams,” said Ziolkowski. “He has great ideas for the students and he’s been a fantastic mentor for the kids. He’s great at trouble-shooting the LEGO® parts and he guides them in the right direction if he sees that they are doing something that won’t work.”
“What about the lunchroom? Where do they sit? What about the taste-tester?” Lake asked the Cupcakes Forever team after they showed him their model and explained how it will work.
“Mrs. Z asked me if I wanted to help and I said, ‘Sure.’ I’ve used LEGOs since I was 5. I like LEGOs and I like little kids,” said Lake. “Here, I help debug programs and make things fit. My favorite thing is being able to be here every Thursday to help Mrs. Z and help these kids.”
“We get to program and we get to build stuff,” said Jacob Burke, one of the Cupcakes’ programmers, about his favorite parts of being in robotics. “We get to build the food and transport it.”
“I have liked LEGOs ever since I was 4. It’s really cool,” said teammate and robot builder Alex Aehle, who attends Armstrong Elementary School.
“You get to build things, take things apart and rebuild things,” said Escher Wingo, a builder with the Honey Bees. He learned something new about the team’s main ingredient – honey. “I learned that honey is beautiful.”
Teammate Hannah Talley, who attends Lawson Elementary School, works as a problem-solver on her team. “I help people with troubles they have. You learn more engineering doing this project.”
Every year, Junior FIRST® LEGO® League works with experts in the field to create a challenge that relates to an important real world issue. This year’s challenge for students ages 6 to 9 is called Snack Attack. According to the Jr. FLL website, Snack Attack is about what a team can learn about your favorite snacks. It’s about what a team can do to keep the food you eat fresh and safe. The end result of the design process is a challenge with two parts – the Show-Me Poster and the model.
The poster requires teams to show their research and team journey. It provides opportunities for them to share what they studied, what they learned and to display information about the team and each team member.
Teams build models of what they research, based from the challenge and build machines and movement into what they create. Models must be simple machines using LEGO® parts – ramps, levers, pulley, gears, wheels, axles, etc., fit into a 15” square footprint and feature at least one moveable piece.