Letter: Fifth Grade Team Wins First Place in Robot Competition

[Editor's Note: A group of Sonoma students recently won first place in the FIRST Lego League 'Food Factor Challenge,' a contest to inspire interest in science and technology. Liam Sheldon, 10, a Sonoma fifth grader, wrote to Patch about his new team]

On Saturday, November 19, a team of eight friends from Sonoma, all 10-years-old, set out to Vacaville for a “First Lego League”  competition. 

That team was the Wizbotz, and our team members are Jack Boydell, Trevor Griggs-Demmin, Andrew Powers, Ty Brenninger, Liam Sheldon, Sam Weisiger, Erik Serbicki and Gregory Kenton. 

They were among 12 teams from all over northern California, 3 of which were also from Sonoma, from St. Francis School.

Each team created a robot for the FLL’s Food Factor Challenge 2011. First, we went behind closed doors, without our coaches, to present our projects, which were judged on design, presentation and 'core values.'

Then, we had a series of four “matches” against the other competing teams.

The first “match” was challenging, but as we got the hang of it, we began to score more points.  In our last match we finally earned 110 points!

We won first place in the “Robot Design” category, and we will be moving on to the Regional Finals to be held in Sacramento on February 11, 2012. Stay tuned for more Wizbotz news in the upcoming months!

-Liam Sheldon