Outstanding results for Scotch First Lego League teams

Mr Andrew Wells and Mr Brent Van Ingen Kal

The First Lego League Challenge is a worldwide robotics competition for students aged 9 to 16.

Participants engage in the intricate process of designing, constructing, and programming autonomous robots, utilising LEGO Spike kits to navigate thematic missions on a designated field. Beyond robotics, teams delve into research projects tackling real-world issues. This season’s theme, “Masterpiece,” revolved around the arts.

At Scotch, we proudly have two teams: Brick Builders and Leg Godt Humans.

Brick Builders ingeniously devised a tactile board aimed at enhancing the art experience for individuals with low or no vision. Their design underwent multiple iterations, experimenting with various techniques from using paint to simulate braille dots to employing hot glue for tactile feedback. Ultimately, their solution incorporated laser-cut materials to enable users to “feel” the artwork, complemented by a braille board featuring over 900 1.5mm diameter ball bearings.

Incorporating feedback from VisAbility users, they meticulously ensured proper alignment and provided detailed artwork descriptions. Their efforts earned them recognition at the Young Entrepreneurs Showcase, garnering praise, notably from Minister for Innovation, Stephen Dawson.

Meanwhile, Leg Godt Humans engineered an acoustic panel geared towards preserving music enjoyment without inducing hearing issues such as tinnitus. Their exploration of materials, including wool, cotton, and denim, aimed at curbing textile waste in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Utilising raw sheep’s wool from boarding families, they crafted their own woollen felt, delighting in the process of layering and washing it! Through experimentation with various panel shapes, inspired by hexagons and standard quadrilaterals, and guidance from industry professionals, they refined their prototype. Rigorous testing utilising PVC pipes and a decibel meter setup provided valuable insights into sound absorption.

Leg Godt Humans clinched the Robot Performance Award, and also earned the Robot Design Award for their exemplary programming and engineering practices. Meanwhile, Brick Builders secured the Champions Award – runner up, epitomising their dedication to Core Values, alongside excellence in Robot Performance, Robot Design, and the Innovation Project. These awards have now enabled the boys to further progress in the competition. Brick Builders will be going up against 50 international teams in the European Open Championships in Norway while Leg Godt Humans will be competing against the top teams from each state in America and 30+ international teams at the Sunshine Invitational in Florida, USA.

Looking ahead, our Senior School students are embarking on a new journey with First Robotics, the next level beyond First Lego League. Their objective? To construct a 50-kilogram robot for competition on an 8m by 16m playing field with the aim to participate in this year’s Western Australian Robotics Playoffs at Curtin University.

This year’s season of Lego League has taught me a lot. There have been ups and downs, fun times and stressful times. The competition taught me the values of teamwork and innovation and the part of the competition I definitely enjoyed the most was coding and designing attachments for the robot game board. The best part about being in this team was that everybody worked together and we used everybody’s strengths to try and be the best team we could be. For now, our goal is to try our best, represent our College and Australia in the Sunshine Invitational in Florida, USA.

Declan Chan, Leg Godt Humans

Being part of the First Lego League has been an amazing experience. Over the past year, we have experienced a variety of unique and wonderful opportunities which will assist us in coming years. Witnessing our innovation project evolve from a simple concept to a fully-fledged product showcased at VisAbility WA, the Young Entrepreneurs Showcase, Regional and National qualifiers and at the WA Museum Boola Bardip has been nothing short of amazing. Our favourite part of FLL has been the development of our ideas from our small concept to the many iterations to what we have today. Our team’s collective goal for the remainder of the season and beyond is to not only launch our innovation project into the world and establish a successful business around it but also to perform well in the upcoming competition at the European Open Championship in Norway.

Lachlan Gillett and Lincoln Percy, Brick Builders