First Lego League Competition Club

First Lego League Competition Club

The First Lego League competition club was established at the beginning for term 3 this year with a handful of enthusiastic students. The aim of the club is for students to build and program autonomous cars with robotic arms to solve missions, ultimately competing with local schools for a spot at state championships leading to nationals and then internationals. It's a global competition that was formed in the USA in 1989 with Australia joining in 2006. This year Sunbury schools, both primary and secondary, received funding to join the program. 2023 was our first experience competing with other Sunbury secondary and primary schools. The theme of the competition changes each year, for 2023 it was Masterpiece STEM and The Arts, with students exploring roles and responsibilities of different careers people hold in The Arts including stage managers and sound engineers.  

Our years 7 and 8 students had two teams and they competed with other secondary and primary schools in Sunbury. Team goals are to create robot designs using the Engineering Design Process and Core Values (discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork and of course fun) communicated through the competition rules of engagement. This means that teams earn points by helping other teams succeed!

In term 4 we were able to establish two teams, College Dragons (Esther Ang, Jamie Belleville, Harlow Harker, Antonia Bubica, Abi Walker and Gabi Woodward) and Sunbury Pandas (Alan Charloos, Nic Barry, Marley Beaumont, Jack Burton, Milan Goundar, Tait Maher-Wallace, Euri Perez and Julian Zeegers) to compete at the Dulap Wilim Community Hub on the 10th November where the student's skills and experience were put to the test. There were highs and lows on the day where students demonstrated their perseverance and resilience to overcome unexpected obstacles, relying on teamwork to get them through. For our two teams, The College Dragons were awarded ‘The Dragon Award’ and The Sunbury Pandas were awarded ‘The Second Place Robot Performance Award’. Ultimately it was a fun and enjoyable day with many students returning next year to build on their valuable skills and experiences developed this season.

At Show Off sessions on Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th November, we had a few team members engage with the public about what Sunbury College has achieved during the progress up to competition day. Thanks to Alan Charloos, Euri Perez and Gabbi Woodward for their positive feedback and for taking the time to show families what their teams achieved. There was an additional robot built for Show Off which invited people to Guess its Favourite Colour - The robot would dance when you waved its favourite colour in front of its face. Our Principal Craig O’Bree even had a go and guessed correctly of course. A fun experience was had at ShowOff where students explained their part in the process and how they have all developed their core communication and teamwork skills. 

After such a productive start with the Spike Prime Lego Education kits the program has been extended to be incorporated into the Year 7 Digital Technologies curriculum for 2024. All year 7 students will have an opportunity to build and program autonomous robotic cars and a select few will then represent Sunbury College at the regionals in November each year.

Thanks to the hard work of all the staff and students involved to make this possible.

Joseph Williams 

Digital Technologies Teacher

First Lego League Competition Club Mentor