THE WOODLAND MIDDLE SCHOOL LEGO robotics team consists of (front row, left to right) Jaide Bosen, Natalie Biddix, Sarah Retter, Michael Gabalis, Ellie Newby and (back row, left to right) Josiah Anderson, Blaine Kysar and Lee Gilkerson.
Woodland Middle School’s LEGO robotics team will travel to California this spring to compete in the North American Invitational Championship at LEGO Land just north of San Diego.
The team, comprised of eight seventh- and eighth-grade students and dubbed The Floods, earned the right to move on by tying for second place out of 120 teams at the Oregon state championship tournament earlier this year. The North American event will be held May 16-18.
“We’re really excited,” said Woodland teacher Tim Brown, the team’s adviser. “It will be an adventure.”
Brown said it will be the first trip in an airplane for some of the children. Team members are Josiah Anderson, Natalie Biddix, Jaide Bosen, Michael Gabalis, Lee Gilkerson, Blaine Kysar, Sarah Retter and Ellie Newby.
They are upgrading the project they presented in the Oregon tournament.
“Every time we go to another competition we try to do something better than what we’ve done before,” Brown said. “We went through the judges’ scoring after the state tournament and everybody filled out a sheet saying what we could do better.”
The California contest topic is natural disasters. Brown said students chose flooding as a topic because of Woodland’s long history of floods, including 20 major ones in the last 100 years. They talked with government officials, diking experts, and emergency services personnel to get accurate information about flooding and what would happen if area dams failed.
“We looked at how we can better warn the people who live in this area” if one or more dams burst, Brown said.
One of the students’ goals was to devise a way to improve the warning system that now goes out via robo calls to landlines and cell phones. They decided it would be good to put maps of escape routes into those messages. However, Brown said that wouldn’t help people with no car and the elderly who can’t drive.
“Then someone came up with the idea of underground flood shelters,” he said. “It’s a great idea. (Contest organizers) said it had to be an innovative solution and I think we’ve got one.”
Brown’s wife, Charlene, who teaches at Woodland’s intermediate school, is assistant coach for the team and will accompany the students on the trip along with Brown. Some parents will be going, too.
The biggest immediate task is funding. Brown said the children have raised about half of the $3,000 needed to make the journey. He said many community members already have contributed money, but more help is needed.
Anyone who wants to donate to the team’s expenses may call school secretary Jody Brentin at (360) 841-2850. Brown said checks payable to Woodland Middle School also can be dropped off at the school, 755 Park Street in Woodland.
Donations will help cover the cost of travel, lodging, tournament fees, meals and local transportation in California. Contributions are tax deductible.
