Edge Elementary’s robotics team advances to state championship

NICEVILLE, Fla. — The Edge Elementary School robotics team competed in its first LEGO League Robotics Competition finishing third overall,  beating middle school teams (of up to 10 members), and securing a bid to the next level of the competition.

Once the competition was over, students knew what they needed to improve on to win their next LEGO Robot Game competition, which took place on February 25. The team won the Engineering Excellence Award and advanced to the state championship, held at Northwest Florida State College on March 28

The team, comprised of 5^th-grade students, also won the Robot Design Award for outstanding programming and engineering at the February 5 event.

The student team, coached by their parents, had to be resourceful to create a robot that met their needs. They took the core design of their robot and modified it because they didn’t have the parts needed to create the suggested robot.

Superintendent Chambers presented the team with an Okaloosa County School District Challenge Coin to recognize their work in this effort.

“How you guys interacted with each other just now, that teamwork and patience, those are the core values that are going to translate as life skills,” Chambers said to students.

“Your problem-solving is absolutely incredible. I can’t picture myself at your age doing these things.”

Competing in this event taught the team what they needed to work on to achieve their first-place goal, and to learn communication skills through conversations with their teammates and judges, according to the Okaloosa County School District (OCSD).