Crestline sixth-graders advance to FIRST LEGO League state tournament

Two groups of students from Crestline Elementary’s Enrichment Program competed in the regional tournament of FIRST LEGO League on Dec. 14 in Arab, Alabama.

The fourth and fifth grade group consisted of Crawford Badham, Wesley Portera, Kate Thagard, Gray Schoenvogel, Hunt Lyman, Jack Bright, Bradley Bales, Bryson Dobbins and Silas Girkin, and the sixth grade group consisted of Rob Schoenvogel, Win Graphos, Nate Sartelle, Joseph Spencer, Harrison Dobbins and Hamilton Shew. The groups competed in three areas: Robot Game and Design, Project and Core Values (teamwork). Both teams competed very well, with the sixth grade advancing to state after coming in second in the robot game category and earning a special award for core values.

FIRST LEGO League is an all-encompassing program that immerses students in the engineering process of designing stable and efficient robots with LEGOS, programming them to complete missions on a playing field and making them study a real-world problem in the community—all while displaying good sportsmanship and a strong sense of teamwork.

For the project portion, the fifth grade group studied the Red Mountain Expressway Cut with their mentor, Dr. Prescott Atkinson, vice president of the Alabama Paleontology Society. The sixth grade group studied the issue of noise pollution in the school’s cafeteria with their mentors, Mr. Tommy Prewitt of Mountain Brook Schools and Mr. Ross Pritchard of RPA Sound Panels.

Both teams were guided by their coaches: Heather Phillips (enrichment specialist), Katie Meyerpeter (enrichment specialist) and Taylor Core (volunteer.)

Submitted by Heather Phillips.