Lego contest for Moray schools
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Two Moray schools have taken part in a contest that featured a winning combination of lego, robots and environmentalism.
Keith Grammar and Speyside High contested the FIRST Lego League challenge yesterday.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an international organization which aims to spark young peoples' interest in those subjects.
Back in September the schools each received a Lego Education robotic kit.
Both teams have since had to design and build their robots, which are powered by motors and possess sensors to measure things such as distance, light and colours.
Yesterday their robots were challenged to complete a series of tasks.
These involved moving around an area containing environmental features made out of lego, including a wind turbine and a hydro-electric dam.
It also required them to push, pull, grab, lift and carry various objects.
And here's the tricky bit – rather than being remote controlled by a team member, the robots had to be programmed in advance to perform the tasks themselves.
Speyside's robot was called Chicken Bugatti, while their team name was the Chicken Guys.
Winners of the overall contest, they had to settle for second in another part of the challenge – the innovation project award – which involved giving a presentation on an environmental theme.
Meanwhile, Keith Grammar chose the team name Cheeso, which contains the initials of each of its six members' names.
Seth Malcolm was the 'S'.
The 13-year-old said: "It's been a really good day, even though our robot didn't perform the tasks as well as we were hoping. There was nothing wrong with the programming, it just didn't quite happen.
"So the best part of the contest was the innovation award – because we won that."
Yesterday's event was run with help from RAF Lossiemouth and from DWP, the Developing the Young Workforce programme.
