Warrenton Grade School’s inaugural F1shSt1ckz Lego Team won first place in the Project portion of the First Lego League’s Qualifying Tournament at Intel’s Jones Farm in Hillsboro Saturday.

Broadway Middle School’s BMSSharks Lego robotics team, also in its first year of the competition, won the Rising Star award.

Two teams from Portland, one from West Linn and another from Forest Grove advanced to the state championship event.

Evan Augustin, Marlie Annat, Zander Moha, Annie Heyen, Hataya Gann and Jenna Stein, all WGS fifth- and sixth-graders, competed against 18 other teams in four categories: robot design, programming, core values (teamwork) and a project.

Mentoring the Grade School’s FIRST Lego League team are juniors Ashley Fish and Brenton Davis, who plan on returning next year. Both are members of Warrenton High School’s new STEM class, where they are building gliders, drones and submersible robots. The team is coached by technology adviser Margaret Heyen and instructional assistant (and engineering degree holder) Matt Crichton.

They won the first-place project with their “Germ Madness” play and presentation on how to improve the way kindergarteners wash their hands. Their innovative solution FLL looks for was scored as exemplary.

“Their team solution was easy to understand and well organized,” said one project judge. “They included good research and their presentation was appropriate for kindergarten.”

The robot design was scored as accomplished with room for development.  The robot design judges liked the specialized attachments for the missions but wanted the team to do more with them. The F1shSt1ckz robot, named Little Minnow,  scored well in mechanization with the judges with an appropriate balance of speed, strength and accuracy on most tasks. The judges also liked their mission strategy, but suggested using sensors next year.

“The judges and the other teams were all very nice,” said sixth-grader Ann Heyen, daughter of the coach, about her favorite part of the day. “The other teams shared their pizza and asked about our name and one team gave out pencils to everyone.”

“My favorite part was winning,” added fifth-grader Zander Moha.

“I was pumped,” said STEM class teacher Dionne Marshall, who told her class at WGS about the win shortly after learning. “Announcing the  Lego Team’s win to my classes was an opportunity to open up discussion with the students about all the science and technology offerings available here, and especially at the high school, as Warrenton continues to expand.”

The WGS First Lego Team plans on competing again next year with hope of qualifying. They start meeting Tuesdays beginning March 31 to experiment with robot design and programming missions.

The after-school WeDo and Lego Mindstorm classes at WGS resume February through May.  The WeDo classes are for second- and third-graders and the Mindstorm classes are for fourth- through eighth-graders. Both classes are limited to 10 students.  More details will be posted in school newsletter in January.

Computer Science week started Monday and ends Sunday.  To celebrate, WGS is participating in The Hour of Code.  All of the kindergarteners through fifth-graders will code for at least an hour this week. Code.org is aiming for 100 million students to participate in The Hour of Code this year.  The Warrenton-Hammond School District’s goal is to have all of their students K-12 complete The Hour of Code next year.