The WACO Junior Robotics Team; photo courtesy of WACO Community Schools

The junior robotics team at WACO recently put their technical acumen to the test and placed fourth out of 28 schools in the LEGO League regional competition in Ottumwa. There are three parts to the competition that students aged 9-15 take part in, including a robotics obstacle course, an interview about the design process, and a presentation over an identified problem and potential solution. Each portion of the competition incorporated the theme, which this year was “Animal Allies.” WACO’s team, named “Alpaca Pack” focused on the benefits of alpaca wool for their presentation. Freshman Liz Birchfield worked on the presentation, saying, “It was about how alpacas help people, like what problem they solve. And alpacas solve the problem of, if you’re allergic to sheep’s wool or the oil in it, alpaca fleece is like an alternative to that.”

For the obstacle course, freshmen Tanner Conwell and Dalton Diers designed “Sebastian,” their self-operating robot using the EV3 LEGO kit. Conwell built most of the attachments for the robot, while Diers programmed its operations. It then performed a series of challenges, one of which Conwell described, “One of our challenges was to get food out of the fridge. It had a like a little lever that you had to move back and forth, and we had arms that went over it and came back and forth.” Diers said programming the autonomous robot was a challenge, though feels they had success, saying, “I think the most difficult thing was our motors were kind of out of sync, so it’d like start to roll to the right. So once we got the new motors it ran straight. The hardest thing is just you have to work it one step at a time, so it takes a really long time.” The students got involved with the junior robotics team through WACO’s Plus One program on Fridays, and each student hopes to continue working with robotics in spite of no longer being eligible for the LEGO League. For more information about the competition, listen to the In Touch with Southeast Iowa interview with Birchfield, Conwell, Diers, and coach Paul Kissell at KCIIRadio.com.


Tanner Conwell, Liz Birchfield, and Dalton Diers with their creations; photo by Joe Cerwinske


Diers and Conwell with “Sebastian” at the competition; photo courtesy of WACO Community Schools