Silver Bow Montessori School and Margaret Leary Elementary Legos Robotics students have their act together in a Legos sort of way.
In a recent statewide First Legos League competition at Montana State University in Bozeman, both teams brought home a first-place trophy in at least one category.
Montessori’s Building Joes, led by Coach Bobbi Blow, placed first in project presentation.
The Margaret Leary Math Magicians, led by Jennifer Luoma and Becky Booth, took first place in teamwork.
First Lego League introduces youths in grades 4-8 science and technology in a fun, exciting fashion.
The Montessori team created a contracting company called the Building Joes, specializing in teaching the general public about building safe, efficient and green homes.
As part of their award-winning presentation, the Building Joes built a house model, organized educational classes and brochures and wrote a song about green homes.
Their project mission: how to find more innovative ways to help someone learn.
Teams also designed and built a robot and then programmed their robot to complete missions on a playing field.
Luoma is especially proud of the Math Magicians’ teamwork award, as teamwork is a key league core value and a comprehensive honor covering several categories.
“That’s the great thing about robotics,” said Luoma: “It’s not judged just on one thing; it’s judged on many things.”
Criteria included how well teams learned and demonstrated life skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, creativity, problem solving, communication and understanding technology.