After securing first place in the Hampshire Regional Lego Championships in January, the Lego Lizards team (Stuart S, Oscar M, Ted R, Harry F, Brett V, Fin F, Jamie A and Justin K) were recently invited to the National Competition in Harrogate.
After a long journey on the Friday, the boys’ first challenge early Saturday was to present their Innovation Project to the panel of judges. The team had created a Lego lock, then improved it with a stronger casing, a reverse mechanism, then an elaborate combination lock. All the judges were impressed, especially as this was the first time that a lock project had been presented. The team shared their instructions for each lock, created using CAD software and laid out like the Lego kits we know and love. Then the panel looked at the website created and shared with students in the school prior to the competition, and finally there was a discussion about the programming which was created using Python which also impressed the judges, as most teams were using a simpler coding language. The Lego Lizards left having made a very enthusiastic and successful impression.
They had three official games in the main arena, which was live streamed, with parents watching online and coaches watching behind. The first run went really well, but a few programming tweaks were required to the robot, and also in the second and third games to enable higher point scoring, and so the boys didn’t reach the National Knock Out rounds. However, they came 38th out of over 800 teams nationally (including many from Engineering Clubs) so tough competition, which is a fabulous achievement!
On the long journey home, the boys were already planning their project and robot for next year with the theme of Diving! They were enthusiastic, highly entertaining and kept their energy high all weekend.
