Four hundred and fifty elementary school students assembled at the Royal Naval Air Service facility in Helston. These students showed off their engineering skills to build unique Lego robots for the dramatized Lego League Regional Final. This year’s competition was based on the theme of archaeology. At Houston, participants completed electrifying missions on a custom-built game table!
Students from all schools, including Porthleven School, took part in this breath-taking and exhilarating experience. From there, kids designed and built their own Lego robots and then programmed their robots to navigate challenges based on real-life archaeological tasks. The three-day event was an inspiring hands-on experience in a deep dive of learning. It brought STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—education together with some real fun!
Elowyn an entrant in the Codeathon shared how much she loved the experience.
“It’s a great experience for kids our age because you’re learning and still having fun.” – Elowyn
Felicity Blight, the school secretary at Porthleven School, said events like these were vital in helping support students’ learning outside of the classroom.
“It really builds on their STEM learning, they get to do a lot of coding and a lot of teamwork.” – Felicity Blight
While the event was centered around coding skills, it served as a collaboration tool for the students. Through team-based, competitive activity, participants learned alongside their peers as they collaborated to solve challenges and accomplish the missions laid out before them. Local event organizer George Slater applauded the grit and tenacity shown by the youth when faced with obstacles.
“The robots are not perfect, they will go wrong and they do go wrong, but the children get through that and persevere.” – George Slater
Participants such as Tamsin Melville from Helston, and George Thorpe from the South West, picked up useful technical skills. They valued the opportunity to learn about their possible future careers as engineers. Slater pointed out this element of the competition, saying,
“It’s really great to see the potential naval engineers of the future having loads of fun, getting engaged in this sort of activity and doing some really impressive coding.” – George Slater
The Lego League Regional Final provided an amazing stage for all of these young learners! Not only were they able to let their imagination run wild, but they were building valuable STEM skills. The mix of wonder, magic, and creativity with learning at the core created an unforgettable experience for everyone involved.