Hinesburg Community School Team Competes in LEGO Robotic Competition
A total of 37 teams participated in the event, which featured a welcome by Lt. Gov. John Rogers.
(Note: Unless indicated, all photos and video by Cathy Ryan.)
By Cathy Ryan
Hinesburg Record News Editor
A team of students from the Hinesburg Community School participated in the FIRST® LEGO® League State Championship on Saturday, hosted at GlobalFoundries in Essex Junction, Vermont. To get to the state championship, the team had to achieve a level of success at the Southern Regional Qualifier at Rutland High School on Dec. 6. Thirty-seven teams competed at the state championship.
FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) is an afterschool program that introduces STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) to children through fun, hands-on learning. Participants gain real-world problem-solving experiences through a guided, global robotics program using LEGO® technology. Beyond building and programming a LEGO® robot, students must also develop a research project based on that year’s theme, and present their project to judges at the competition. This year’s theme was archeology. FIRST in Vermont is the state nonprofit organization that supports Vermont FIRST robotics teams.
Hinesburg Community School had two FLL teams this year – “The X-Cavators,” which is the team that made it to the state championship; and “The Relish Rangers,” which did not make it past the regional qualifiers.
The X-Cavators team has nine members – eight from HCS ranging from 4th grade to 8th grade, and a non-HCS member, who is a Hinesburg resident. The team members are Allora Beatty, Liam Brassard, Rosetta Caulfield-Mills, Jacob Fregeau, Liam Gibbons, Ben Lewis, Thomas Maguire, Benny Peterson, and Theron Trefethen.
The Relish Rangers team members are Nicholas Barsenas, Rosetta Caulfield-Mills, Wynn Cluver, Oak Dippen, Isaac Eddy-Belles, Tula Edling, Thackery Lapierre, and Langley Parent.
In mid-November, the CVSD school district held the second annual “CVSD Challenge Cup.” It’s an event where all the teams from the CVSD schools compete in preparation for the qualifiers. For the first time, HCS hosted the CVSD Challenge Cup with nine participating teams (the biggest one yet, after last year with six teams). At this event, Team Relish Rangers won the Breakthrough Award.
Vermont Lt. Governor John Rogers spoke at the opening ceremonies. He is very enthusiastic about FLL, and would like every Vermont school to have a FLL program.
However, there are costs involved with participating in the program. HCS’s teams were supported this year (and last year) by STARBASE Vermont, which supported the HCS FLL teams by providing iPads and the LEGO Spike Prime kits. The STARBASE VT Nonprofit paid for the students’ t-shirts. STARBASE is a nationwide program with over 90 locations across the United States, which receives funding and curriculum from the Department of Defense. Long Trail Psychiatry and Mindful Journeywork are also sponsors of the HCS teams this year. GlobalFoundries sponsored the state competition.
The teams are coached by Sunshine Ouimette, a HCS Math Intervention Para Specialist, and Paige Clark, who works for STARBASE Vermont. The teams meet twice a week after school, starting at the beginning of the school year.
The team first met with two judges in a small conference room to discuss their research project, the building and programming of their robot, how they worked together as a team and problem-solved, and how they represent the the FIRST® Core Values: Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork, and Fun. This presentation actually counts more toward the teams’ final scores than the robot competition.
The team then has three opportunities to compete in the robot game (the portion of the competition involving the robot). Only their highest score of the three attempts is used. Their robot must move around the game area, interacting with LEGO® models in specific ways, to score points. The teams also get points for displaying Gracious Professionalism.
Although the X-Cavators did not win any awards at Saturday’s competition (there were 37 teams from across Vermont competing), they all had a great time and learned a lot throughout the program.
HCS been participating in this competition since 2022, when the district received an innovation grant to provide each school with a coach to run the FLL program. The CVU robotics team, RoboHawks, also received a grant and also used another grant, the Rowland Foundation grant, to help cover cost and materials.
CVU students participate in a similar robotics competition that is also organized by the FIRST organization, called FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). This program uses larger robots that are not built from LEGO® bricks. There are two CVU RoboHawks teams – varsity and JV. Coach Ouimette pointed out, “The RoboHawks team has been instrumental in providing support as mentors to teams, each year since. RoboHawks have also been a great help each year in supporting competition events like district competitions and regional qualifiers.” The RoboHawks will be competing at the Vermont FTC Qualifier North at CVU on Saturday, Jan. 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The public is welcome to attend.
