Local youth compete in robotics program – Shelbyville Times-Gazette

Seen here with their first place awards at a First Lego League regional tournament in Tullahoma in December are, from left, Dakota Lawen, Caleb Voorhes-Fontenot, Abigail Voorhes-Fontenot, Sarah Parker and Angela Wood.

Submitted photo

The Tree Climbing Fish, a First Lego League robotics team from the Flat Creek area, completed its 2016-2017 season by competing at the East Tennessee FLL Championship Tournament on Feb. 11 at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville.

The team had a great year. In December they won first place overall at the regional tournament in Tullahoma and advanced to the state level competition in Cookeville. At Cookeville, the team took first place in the Research division. This award recognized a team that uses diverse resources to formulate an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the problem they are trying to solve. Both tournaments had over 30 teams from the region. The team is sponsored by the Arnold Air Force Base STEM Program. The Flat Creek Volunteer Fire Department allows the team to use its community room for practices. The team is grateful to both organizations for their support.

Team members for the Tree Climbing Fish are Dakota Lawen, Abigail Voorhes-Fontenot, Caleb Voorhes-Fontenot, Angela Wood and Sarah Parker. The team has competed for five years. The team name references an Albert Einstein quote: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

The FIRST Lego League is a robotics program for kids ages 9-14, and claims to be the leading not-for-profit STEM engagement program for kids worldwide. There are several components to the competition. In the robotics competition, the teams must program a robot to score points on a themed playing field. There is also a project competition, in which the teams must imagine and demonstrate some sort of invention that solves a real-world problem. This year's theme was "Animal Allies." The team had to pick an opportunity for people to help animals or animals to help people. This year, they looked at the damage feral hogs cause to native wildlife and came up with an innovative way to remove hogs from an area. The team is also judged on the mechanical design and robot programming as well as how well they come together as a team. The team practiced two to four hours a week for seven months, not including the time spent by individual members on research or time spent on field trips.

At a state competition in Cookeville, the team took first place in the research division. From left: Angela Wood, Sarah Parker, Abigail Voorhes-Fontenot, Caleb Voorhes-Fontenot and Dakota Lawen.

Submitted photo

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Local youth compete in robotics program - Shelbyville Times-Gazette