LEGO robotics team builds its way to

LEGO robotics team builds its way to national success

Students need to be on their game to master the FIRST LEGO League Challenge. And piecing together creativity, coding and presenting skills, along with a block of experience, proved the winning formula for Kaiapoi North School as they were crowned national champions.

Everything is awesome for students at Kaiapoi North School after winning the FIRST LEGO League Challenge 2020. “It’s a tough competition and everyone was delighted,” said teacher and coach Brayden Johnson, “After they missed their opportunity to travel to Australia due to COVID – after placing third last year – they put in a lot of work and relief was a word some of them used to describe how it made them feel.

“They’re a very dedicated group of students. Many of them put in work outside of the regular weekly sessions we have at school to prepare. They see being in a FIRST LEGO League team as a privilege and strive pretty hard to ensure that FLL continues to be viewed in this way.”

Two-part challenge

Held last December at Te Matauranga School in Auckland, the national competition attracted 48 teams from around the country, among them two from Kaiapoi North School, the experienced Tech Vengers and first timers Tech Knights. “Each year FLL releases a challenge the involves both problem solving and a robotics element,” explained Brayden. “Part one is a practical project that involves students coming up with a solution to a real-world problem and using experts in their field to prove their theory could work. Students create a presentation of between 5-10 minutes to showcase to the judges on competition day. There are also presentations of around five minutes that cover both the LEGO Core Values and the robot design and creation. Part two is all around using the EV3/SPARK PRIME Robots.” The 2020 challenge was around keeping people fit. “Our Tech Vengers team created an app called INCLUSIVE that encourages competition by awarding points for exercising. QR codes were added to our school fitness equipment and there was a large focus on making the game accessible to people of all abilities. “The Tech Knights used Virtual Reality to create a game to get people moving and doing fitness, like running on the spot press-ups, etc.”

TEAMWORK: TECH VENGERS (BACK) AND TECH KNIGHTS (FRONT)

Improving performance

Kaiapoi North became involved in FIRST LEGO League in 2017 when students worked together with staff to find an event that allowed them to push themselves in robotics while being able to also apply STEM knowledge through the project version of the event. Each successive year has seen the school’s team improve its performance, finishing third in 2019 and winning in 2020. “When we originally started a team, I needed to shoulder tap students to take part. However, with a profile that comes with placings and wins, we had more and more interest from students wanting to take part. Now there’s a trial for people to join. We also began receiving some fantastic support from local businesses, which is vital for us to be able to afford to get to Auckland for the Nationals.” Brayden adds that he’s incredibly lucky to have support from parents like Tracey Moore and Jo McCurrie, and especially Dean Sole, who runs weekend coding sessions for students and “always goes above and beyond”. “Last year saw us expand to two teams – one experienced and one beginner. Our experienced team came away as national champions with our junior team finishing third overall in the robotics portion of the competition. Both the 2019 placing and the 2020 win should have qualified us for international travel and representation but, unfortunately, COVID put an end to that.” Although FLL allows for between 4 and 10 students per team, there are eight students in each KNS team

“We choose this number as it allows for enough space in a Van for coaches plus students when we travel.”

Talk to professionals

The teams meet every Monday from 3pm to 4.30pm to prepare and work on their projects. “Our students give up an afternoon to come together and brainstorm their ideas,

SUPPORT CREW: (L-R) PARENT COACHES JO MCCURRIE AND DEAN SOLE, AND BRAYDEN JOHNSON.

refine their solutions and talk to professionals to ensure that their ideas are accurate and can be used in real world solutions. This is usually followed up with homework (self-set) to be done before the session the following week. Sometimes there are also weekend sessions as needed as we get closer to the competition. “I know of many schools that use the FLL challenge as an inquiry and have teams that take part through classroom teaching. We don’t link to in-class work here, as we choose to have it as an extra.”

Brayden believes the competition offers a range of benefits to students. “They learn a lot about personal inquiries, teamwork, competition, robotics, and coding. “Students have to explore a theme and understand what the big question means and how to answer them using small community-based questions. They learn about prototyping, having their ideas peer reviewed (by a specialist), using feedback to improve their original idea, and then how to put this all together and make a presentation that covers all of their pain points. They learn about teamwork and LEGO Core Values while working together. “There’s also PD opportunities for teachers, provided through both FIRST LEGO League and coaches’ forums, as well as team meet ups. Plus, there are a lot of YouTube clips online that can assist.”

Unexpected challenge

Looking ahead, Brayden’s students have been working hard on this year’s challenge – and he’s had some unexpected work to do, as well. Themed ‘Cargo Connect’, the FLL has this challenge for 2021: “Transportation drives us forward, bridging cultures and enhancing quality of life. But as the world changes, it’s up to you to innovate and build sustainable paths forward, ensuring a brighter future for all.” The National Championship is being held 4 and 5 December at Te Matauranga School in South Auckland. However, as well as a regional event in Hawke’s Bay, a second is being held in Christchurch at, yes you’ve guessed it, Kaiapoi North School, on 20 November. “I jokingly said to the organisers at the Nationals last year that they should contact me if they wanted to run an event in the South Island. I was contacted in March and it has been all hands on deck since then.

“I am very excited about it as we’re able to offer this opportunity to more schools that wouldn’t have been able to take part in the past.” For more about the FIRST LEGO League Challenge 2021 go to firstnz.org

If you’d like to know more about the regional competition in Christchurch (especially if you can volunteer to help on the day), contact Brayden at

brayden.j@kaiapoinorth.school.nz