Yesterday the Newton high-school robotics team, the LigerBots, competed in an off-season event, the Bay State Brawl, at Whitinsville Christian School. The team assigned all rookie students to drive the robot, and after the qualifying rounds this team was selected into a three-team alliance that won the event, going undefeated in the semi-finals and finals.  About 15 students, including 8 rookies, participated in this event with 10 other teams.

The Newton LigerBots sent a delegation to the FIRST National Advocacy Conference, June 24-26 in Washington, DC, representing Massachusetts along with the Green Reapers team from Worcester. The 250 conference attendees learned about how bills get passed, how to advocate effectively, what other teams are doing at the state level, and the two STEM-related aims of FIRST’s current advocacy:

• Reauthorization of the Perkins Act, which supports technical education and STEM opportunities in second careers for those who may otherwise not be able to afford it, and
• Full funding for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which provides flexible block grants that school districts can use to for high-quality STEM programs both in the classroom and after school.

On the last day of the conference, the LigerBot delegates met with Representative Joseph Kennedy as well as with staff of Senators Warren and Markey, and Representative Capuano to talk about FIRST, STEM, the Perkins Act, and ESSA.

Newton North HS has once again won first place in the 31st annual Massachusetts Envirothon competition and will represent the state at the North American competition, July 22-28 in Pocatello, Idaho. After a year of intensive preparation and study, the team traveled to the Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park in Uxbridge to compete against 26 other high schools in an all-day schedule of written tests and hands-on activities assessing knowledge of soils, forests, water, and wildlife. Each team also gave a presentation about its research into its own community’s water infrastructure resources and needs, identifying a partnering opportunity and making specific recommendations for action. This is the sixth time in seven years that Newton North HS has won this honor.

It’s been a busy and successful year for Newton’s Day Dragons FIRST Lego League (FLL) team, consisting of four students from Day Middle School and two from Pierce Elementary.  The team won a spot in last week’s FLL World Championships in Detroit.  To prepare for the event, the team completely redesigned, rebuilt, and reprogrammed its robot after the state competition — and had its work reviewed by the LigerBots — and was thus able to achieve significantly higher scores and greater consistency in the World competitions. At the event, the Day Dragons were honored to share their experiences in agile development as part of an Agile FIRST expert panel.  With the help of the law firm of Mintz Levin, the team applied for a provisional patent for its innovations. In addition to community work (e.g., demonstrating its robot at the Lincoln Eliot science fair), the team also visited a Harvard University robotics lab. In the upcoming off-season, the team is preparing for next year and plans to work with the LigerBots in promoting FIRST, STEM, and robotics in the Newton community.

The Newton LigerBots had their best performance yet at the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) World Championship in Detroit this weekend, finishing 6th out of 68 teams in the Daly division and advancing to the Division Semifinals before falling to the team that won the World Championship. This is the fourth time that the LigerBots have won a spot in the World Championships in its ten years. and each time they have advanced further.

Thirty-three LigerBots students, accompanied by coaches, mentors and parents, made the trip to Detroit to compete with over 400 FRC teams from around the world. The FIRST World Festival also included 128 teams competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge and over 100 FIRST Lego League teams — including the Newton’s Day Dragons, a team of four students from Day Middle School and and two from Pierce.

The LigerBots lost only one of 10 matches in qualifying rounds, achieving third best among 37 New England teams that qualified for the championships. They advanced through quarterfinals and semifinals, but did not move on to the finals. 

Excellence depends on many factors: a robust design, a skilled and level-headed “drive team,” the ability to partner with other teams, and scouting other matches to identify robots with complementary abilities with which to form alliances.

The event included exhibits from colleges across the country, an innovation fair, and exhibits from companies seeking to engage with students interested in STEM.

Newton’s Day Dragons FLL team presented a seminar on “Applying Agile Principles to Your FIRST Lego League Team,” which was well-received, and the students impressed the audience as they took part in a panel discussion following the presentation.

The LigerBots spoke to teams around the world about: how they inspire and engage their community in learning about STEM, their use of 3D printing, and their 3D printed part competition, which they created 3 years ago to celebrate the creative ways teams solve problems with 3D printing.

The LigerBots were excited to be a part of this event,and appreciate the community and corporate support that allowed the team to include as many students as were able to go. Their next competition will be BattleCry, on May 19 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.