Nashua champs have 'Lego' up on rest of Montana

Northeast Montana scored a major honor Saturday when the Nashua Por-Q-Bots won the First Place Champions Award at the Montana FIRST Lego League Championship in Bozeman. This is such a significant achievement that it includes an invitation to compete in the FLL World Festival in Atlanta, Ga., in April.

The Montana FIRST Lego League Championship involves 9- to 12-year-olds working with robots, using technical skills. (FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.) There are awards in many categories, including teamwork, team spirit, robot design, robot performance, etc. All together, there were about 15 trophies awarded to 36 teams registered. But, the “crème of the crop” is the Champion’s Award. To earn it, a team must score well in all of the categories, so that their total team point score is the highest. The Nashua Por-Q-Bots won that distinction over teams from larger towns all over Montana.

The team is comprised entirely of Nashua School students. There are nine team members, all from fifth and sixth grades: Jordan Ramsbacher, Shae Fisher, Natasha Chamberlain, Nolan Viste, Chase Williams, Nicole Williams, Shaylin Barnett, Morgan Guttenberg and Ryleigh Delich. There are also two seventh-grade student mentors, Sandy Viste and Ryan Scanlan. Coaches include Laura Wagner, Janet and Ryan Williams and Patti Scanlan.

Glasgow also had a team at the Bozeman FLL Championship Tournament, the Glasgow Robodogs. This was the first year of competition for many of the team members and the coach, and they didn’t receive any trophies, but they did do well.

The team members were asked for their greatest memory from the weekend.
Ryleigh Delich: When they announced that we won. It was the very last trophy of all of them on the table. I knew the last trophy was the biggest one, and I didn't think it would be us. I didn't know it was us until everyone started screaming!

Ryan Scanlan: When our name was announced – no words can express it.

Chase Williams: I liked it when we got to the target spot every round. We even made it there twice one round when we decided to start that mission again!

Nolan Viste: When we won.

Shae Fisher: I liked it when everyone in the gym yelled 3, 2, 1, Lego! to start. And, I liked the ribs at our celebration party at Famous Dave's.

Nicole Williams: I met an awesome dude from another country with a white turban.

Jordan Ramsbacher: I thought it was great when we did the skit for the judges and they never asked us about how much it would cost. It was crazy when we won first place.

Natasha Chamberlain: When we did our best, we did better than we thought we would. It was fun when we nicknamed the trophy "Goldiblocks."

Sandy Viste: When they said our number, 3997, I knew it was us!

Shaylin Barnett: I liked the model trains we saw on the way home at Livingston.

The coaches also had comments.
Coach Janet Williams: We went to have a good time, and it turned out to be the best time.

Coach Laura Wagner: This group of kids really came together. They have worked really hard, meeting up to six days a week right before the tournament. They are a super bunch of kids, and really fun to be with.

Coach Patti Scanlan: I am so proud of them!

Coach Ryan Williams: “I appreciate all the smiles and laughter throughout the weekend. I am so proud of our team, coaches, supportive school, and my family. These are the moments I live for.

Since FIRST Lego League is something that is hard to explain in words, the Por-Q-Bots are planning some demonstrations to show the community what it looks like. For more information about the Por-Q-Bots , go to the Nashua School Web site, nashua.k12.mt.us –go to "clubs and organizations," then to "Por-Q-Bots." More information about FIRST Lego League can be found at www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll/.

The FIRST Lego League is a competition that involves a research project and robot game based on a “real world” problem that our society faces. This year’s theme was “Smart Move,” which involves transportation. The research project was to define a problem in our community, find a solution to that problem, and share the solution with others. The Nashua team chose the problem of “Blocked Rescue Vehicles,” when the Nashua railroad crossing is blocked by a train and there are rescue vehicles that need to cross. The solution they chose was a vehicle elevator—two elevators, one on each side of the track, with a bridge over the track between them. This elevator would only be used in an emergency. This idea has been presented to Nashua Mayor Patricia Hallett, who also invited the team to present it at a Nashua town meeting. Although a vehicle elevator may not be the most practical solution available, the judges in Bozeman found it innovative and creative.
The most exciting part of the competition is the robot game. Each team purchases a kit at the beginning of the season that includes a mat for a ping-pong sized table and mission model parts. The teams build the mission models according to specific directions so that each team has a table to practice on that is uniform with all the others in the world. Then, the teams build their own small robots using a Lego Mindstorms NXT robot, motors and sensors. The teams add their own designs for a chassis and attachments to solve missions on the game table. They program the robot on computers, then download their programs to the robot so it operates autonomously.
Some examples of missions from this year’s game are to hit a target spot at the end of the time, move objects back to base, keep a crash test dummy and people on board the robot, and trigger a vehicle crash test.