Domo Arigato Robotics Team #5544 from Bednarcik Junior High School competed in the First Lego League Regional Competition held in Batavia on Saturday, Dec. 17.

The competition involved three main components: robot performance and technical presentation, research project and teamwork.

The team’s robot, Captain Grapefruit, had a couple of great runs on the competition course, completing all the missions the team programmed it to do. The most impressive program was the conveyor belt program to move bacteria to the sink on the course.

For the research presentation, the students had to investigate a food contamination problem. The team studied the effects of bacteria on fruits and vegetables and how to avoid cross contamination. They created an informational display at school on food safety and proper storage methods.

They focused on how to detect ethylene gas emitted from fruit so that families would know if the fruit was still good to eat. They designed a prototype using sensors from the Lego NXT robot.

Students created a video to showcase their teamwork skills and explained how gracious professionalism applies in robotics competitions and in daily life.

They performed well in all categories and were selected to receive the Judges Choice Award. This award recognizes a team that embodies the FLL experience by fully embracing the Core Values (of teamwork) while performing well in the competition. The judges commented on how the team exemplified teamwork, were innovative, polite, modest and were a real tribute to their school.

Team members spent every Saturday from September through December in addition to meeting after school in order to get everything done. They were definitely dedicated and motivated to succeed in this competition.

Special thanks to Amy Truemper for submitting these photos and the article.