Francis HowellMiddle School

The Francis Howell School District (FHSD) continues to spark innovation and creativity with a variety of programs for students. On Friday, March 3, students in the Robotics Clubs at Saeger, Barnwell, Bryan, and Francis Howell Middle Schools competed in the General Motors LEGO Challenge at St. Charles Community College.

Teams were comprised of four to six students, tasked with building and programming LEGO robots to carry out assigned functions. Each team’s design, presentation, and “accuracy of deliverables” was then judged, including items such as bid proposal forms and time sheets. The ultimate goal is to get students interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and what better way than a battle of the bots?

"Our students enjoyed working hard and getting recognized for their efforts," said Angila Wittmus, Spectra teacher at FHMS. "I believe their creativity was unmatched. Our students really do have a talent for coding and building robots!"

The competition is designed to give students a real-life perspective on what it takes to build a robot, and even offers career preparation. Each team was required to estimate how much the robot would potentially cost in a career setting, the number of hours the students needed to build the robot, and the cost of materials.

Team members were assigned different jobs such as safety engineer, mechanical engineer, and project manager. The job of the robot was to pick up a block assembly, and place it in the designated drop location. The robot was also required to demonstrate the ability to repeat the process for more than one block assembly.

"A robot is equally about the design, as it is about the programming," said Ashleigh Wuennenberg, member of the Dream Machines team. "It was a great experience to compete against other schools, and see their robots as well."

Congratulations to all those who participated. Below are the names and final finish of the teams from each FHSD middle school.

Francis Howell Middle School