WACO Lego League places fourth in regional competition

On Saturday, Dec. 3, the WACO junior robotics team traveled to Ottumwa for the First Lego League regional competition.

The program contest includes a robotics obstacle course, an interview process over the design process, and a presentation over an identified problem and potential solution. The theme for this year?s Lego challenge was Animal Allies.

WACO?s Alpaca Pack chose the local business, Apple Blossom Alpacas, as a partner in the project. After visiting the farm and doing research on the internet, the team discovered that Alpaca material does not have the skin irritant that cotton material does. The team presented this natural solution to some allergies at the contest.

The warrior team also designed a robot to complete parts of an animal obstacle course built from Legos. The robot is constructed from the EV3 Lego kit. The Alpaca Pack?s robot, Sebastion, placed fourth out of 28 contestants. It completed several of the challenges, such as moving a shark tank and retrieving food from a dispenser to score points.

The team prepared during the WACO plus one days. Every other Friday, the kids worked together to put together programs and videos for the competition. Although they didn?t qualify for State this year, the Alpaca Pack represented WACO well.

The team would like to thank John Deere for its sponsorship and Apple Blossom Alpacas for its partnership in the solution.

For more information, visit www.wacocsd.org.