Lake City Academy in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, began its robotics program three years ago with just eight students. Now, three years later, they have two teams with 16 total students participating.
“The group learns programming, problem solving, presentation preparation and much more in the field of science and technology,” shared Anne Blech, LCA robotics coach. “Core values are an important part of robotics. Everyone on the team must learn how to work together and share ideas. We learn about gracious professionalism and cooperation.”
In February 2024, LCA represented two of the 10 participating teams in the NPUC robotics regionals at Auburn Adventist Academy. Students from fifth through eighth grade participated by presenting their projects to a panel of judges, which evaluated the projects based on the theme, core value and robot engineering.
“Having two teams in our program at LCA can be a challenge, but the teams learn together and help each other,” said Blech. “Our group meets once a week after school for a couple of hours. Sometimes students will go to the robotics lab at a recess to finish programming a mission on their robot.”
During regionals, each team was given a 30-minute judging in front of a panel of judges to present their projects. Then the robot games began with each team having two-and-a-half-minute robot runs to score as many points as possible while completing missions on the table.
Awards are given in each of the categories that are judged. This year, Eagle Studios, one of LCA’s teams, won the award for core values. The other team, Abstract Eagles, placed third and are advancing to the First LEGO League Championship that will be taking place at Forest Lake Academy in Florida.
Now comes the challenge of fine-tuning the robot programming and getting everything ready to go to Florida.
“I’m looking forward to the robot runs at the FLL Championship,” said Caleb Whalen, Abstract Eagles team captain and LCA seventh-grader. “It’s the best part!”
“Our team is excited to represent our school, conference and union at the FLL Championship. Robotics is a great way to enhance our science programs,” shared Blech. “I'm excited for the students getting to meet other students from around the country who share the same interests in science. It’s fun to see how each team approaches their team projects and how they design their robots.”
Visit adventistrobotics.net for more information about Adventist robotics and how to watch the championships.
Lake City Academy Abstract Eagles
Credit: Anne Blech
Lake City Academy Eagle Studios
Credit: Anne Blech
