Bettendorf Robo-Dogs Win Champion's Award at First Lego League State Competition in Iowa

I am in shock.

I don't think it has quite sunk in yet.

This Saturday our Lego Robotics team was at Iowa State competiting in the Iowa First Lego League Championship - http://www.isek.iastate.edu/

Teams compete in four competitions
- Robot Presentation - teams have to explain their robot, attachments, programs, and process to solving the mission board
-Robot Competition - teams have three chances to score the highest score of the day
-Core Values - teams are place in a room with judges and have to perform a task and are graded on problem solving, teamwork, working together, and articulating their actions
-Research/Innovation Project - students have to research an assigned topic and then come up with a new and innovative solution that does not already exist

Back in December we competed at the Putnam Musuem in Davenport, Iowa. There were 9 Regionals across the state. A total of 295 teams competed in Iowa alone. Teams can have no more than 10 members and must be ages 9-14.

At Regionals we took first place in the Robot Competition and also in Core Values. We have never won two awards before. We were off to a good start.

We then had about a month to improve all elements of our team. We worked like mad on our product idea and really turned it around into a well done presentation and product(more details coming later).

We added about 25 points to our robot run.

We talked about what it takes to become better to be competitive at state. We have been to state before, but never really felt like we had a chance to win anything.

We talked about working together as a team. How to handle adversity. How to adapt to the personalities and strengths/weaknesses that each person brings to a team. We worked very hard on the real world skills of coping with the ups and downs of a project of this size.

72 teams arrived at Iowa State this weekend. We did a great job! We talked about our robot in a very professional manner. We had some solid robot runs although we were hoping to do much better(I think this is the case for every team), we delivered a smashing presentation our product, the team felt good about the Core Values(coaches and parents are not allowed to watch).

It was time for the awards. Our team felt a little defeated after our last robot run did not go well. We felt we needed a great run. The awards came out and our name was not called. And not called. And not called. Finally, it was time for the Champion's Award where this is top honors. This goes to the team that did well in everything scoring at the top or very close in all four areas. They mentioned honorable mention, then second place. Finally, the last award of the day and teams sat in anticipation...............


to hear team #10263 Robo Dogs

We won! We won the whole thing. The best team in Iowa out of 295 teams.

I am still in shock. I froze when our name was called. What an honor.

It has not quite sunk in yet what we just accomplished. I know that our hard work over the last five months, the hundreds of hours, the practice, the frustrations, the celebrations, the problem solving, etc. paid off. It is not all about winning as the journey to this point equipped these kids with skills and real world applications that they don't even realize yet, but it sure feels awesome to know we were top dogs.

I will post more pics and information about our team, our research, our robot, etc. as I start to collect my thoughts, collect some images and video from parents, and have time to sort through it all.

I am lacking sleep and have a family that needs attention and a house that needs cleaning. Great job Robo Dogs. This is something I will never forget.

GETTING IT DONE! is not all about fitness training. It is about programs and journeys like this also. Our team GOT IT DONE!