Teams from Aurora dominated the competition at the FIRST LEGO League Ontario Provincial Championships, winning first and second place in the champions award.
The competitions task students with a range of STEM-based challenges, but centres around a LEGO competition, where teams compete to build the best robot and complete a variety of tasks against the clock. Students do this by building LEGO attachments for an electric motorized robot, allowing it to drop fish into a LEGO whale’s mouth, for example.
The kicker is the attachments have to be able to perform multiple functions, as well as be programmed to perform the tasks in sequence.
During competition time, the students are positioned around the game table like a Formula 1 pit crew, frantically swapping out attachments and ensuring their robots are precisely positioned so they stay on course, racing against the clock with the other teams.
Renee Northrup, coach of Équipe Francoboutique, one of Aurora's winning teams, describes it as “like a choreographed ballet” but “with lots of screaming.”
The dynasty
Northrup’s team is something of a dynasty, having qualified for international tournaments for three straight years.
The current crop of students, comprised of Francophone students in grades 5 to 7, representing l'Association des francophones de la région de York, won at provincials during the 2023-24 school year.
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“They're competing against much larger students that had beards and moustaches and were well on their way in high school, and they still won a major award in the competition last year,” said Northrup. “So they're pretty cool.”
After their second-place finish this year at provincials, the team is headed to Worcester, Massachusetts in June, to represent Canada at an international competition, the third year in a row the team has made it to that stage.
“I enjoy how we can put team spirit in the events. I think it really taught me how to work as a team,” said Chase Sullivan, a Grade 5 student.
The upstarts
Another Aurora team, Solvers of X & Y, are set to head to their first international competition after the team won at provincials on Jan. 19. Members of the team have been together for several years.
The team's coach, Dahai Zhang, said the program teaches students a lot of valuable skills like teamwork, but also lessons about how to employ the “engineering process.”
“It doesn't really matter whether you're doing a kids-level robot or industrial robot, you have to go through the same process,” he said, noting the LEGO League program has proven invaluable for teaching kids practical STEM skills.
The team spends between two to four days a week working on their projects at Zhang’s rented workspace on Don Hillock Drive.
“It starts as something, like, ‘Oh, I want to try this’ and as you come to more and more classes, you become more and more interested in it, and then at a certain point, you just want to do this all day,” said Ryan Kong, one of the team's newest members.
Zhang coaches about 80 students across a variety of teams and age groups. His daughter, Renee, is on the championship-winning team, and his son, Ryan, is on the high-school-aged team, set to compete in its FIRST Robotics Competition in Newmarket Feb. 28 to March 2 at Ray Twinney Recreation Complex.
“I kind of took inspiration — I wanted to be like my brother,” said Renee.
Innovation project
The competition also includes an innovation component, akin to a science fair project, focused on one theme. This year, the project had to focus on the marine environment. The project sees teams spending weeks researching, interviewing experts and testing.
Équipe Francobotique designed a water quality testing system, while Solvers of X & Y developed a plastic sheet made out of seaweed, which is biodegradable in water.
“It's all student work and during the Christmas break, some of the students gathered together, literally every single day, morning to night, and we just work together,” said Zhang, noting the students are highly self-motivated.
“Sometimes if you force the student to do work, you cannot guarantee the quality," he added. "I think it's because of their real motivation, not only do they want to get some kind of award, or achievement, but they feel they need to promote this kind of technology."
After their winning exploits at provincials, Solvers of X & Y are also set to travel to an international competition in Houston in April.
Both teams, which run as non-profits, are fundraising to help cover travel costs.
Solvers of X & Y have started a GoFundMe page here.
Students on Équipe Francobotique are running 10 different robotics workshops for students aged from junior kindergarten to Grade 6 in March and April to raise funds for their travel to Massachusetts. Those interested in attending can contact the team at [email protected].