The Rowayton RowBots, the first ever Rowayton School robotics team, won the coveted First Lego League Judges Award at the Connecticut State Championship held on December 7,
2014, at Shelton High School. The team of ten 4th & 5th graders, led by Rowayton School teacher Melissa Petropoulos, was overjoyed at walking away with one of the top prizes as they faced competition from 41 other robotics teams! According to FLL, the Judges Award allows the freedom to recognize remarkable teams that stand out for reasons other than the Core Award Categories.
The Rowayton School team has been working together only since September of this year. Along with Mrs. Petropoulos, the students designed and built a Lego robot, developed a detailed computer program to run it throughvery specific set of movements or “missions” and wrote and illustrated a presentation to explain how they worked as a team to achieve their goals.The team members from Rowayton School are: Luke Haskell, Helen Johnson, Ethan Kaufman, Grant Matkins, Kyle Nguyen, Lindsay Root, Grant Sattler, Lilly Sattler, Max Savona and Jackson Waters.
“We are so proud of the Rowayton School Rowbots!,” says Sara E. Reilly, Principal. “Our team exemplifies the characteristics of what we do best at our school. We build student success through the successful collaboration of our school community; students, faculty, parents and leadership. At Rowayton School, together, we create an academic and social-emotional environment whereby, high expectations and support for risk-taking in learning is always recognized as a success. Rowayton ROCKS!”
The RowBots were riding high after having just come off a win at the First LegoLeague Regional Tournament on November 15 in New Haven. There, the RowBots won one of the three main awards – The Core Values Award. This award was presented to them as a “team that demonstrates the principles of the league including teamwork and shared leadership.” The RowBots scored well enough in this tournament to be chosen to move on to the state tournament on December 7.
Said Rowayton RowBots’ teacher and FLL club leader Melissa Petropoulos, “I am proud of the way this team represented themselves and Rowayton School at the state championship. I think the RowBots were recognized as remarkable because as a rookie team they had poise, consistency, creativity and shared leadership.”
First Lego League was founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. In FLL, children are immersed in real-world science and technology challenges. Teams create innovative solutions to challenges facing today’s scientists Together they strategize, design, build, program, and test an autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology.
