, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Hills-Beaver Creek sixth- through eighth-graders will focus on learning rather than winning at their first LEGO robotics competition Saturday.
The new team is called HELP, which is an acronym for Healthy Electronic Learning Playmate.
Heroes makes its debut after five months of organization, recruiting, building and practicing.
Lexi Moore, district media paraprofessional, is the team’s first coach.
“It is great to have the community supporting our robotics team,” she said.
“I feel this program benefits all types of thinkers — from the creative to the logical students. It really offers something for everyone.”
Moore’s daughter, Mazzi, an eighth-grader, wrote a $5,000 grant to the Frank Boon Trust to purchase the LEGO robotic equipment and potentially sustain the program for five years.
The duo used experience from working with the Rock County 4-H Robotics Team to organize a team based at H-BC Secondary.
The H-BC School Board approved the team’s organization a year ago.
“We want to thank the Frank Boon Trust and the H-BC School Board for giving our team the opportunity to try something new,” Lexi Moore said. “Their support has made an easy start to a new program.”
The First LEGO League competitions focus on three areas: the robotics games, a real-world project and the league’s core values of discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork and having fun.
“I tried really hard to keep the focus on these values,” Moore said.
“They help build better people and, regardless of our performance at the competition, these students have all experienced a great deal of growth and fun.”
The H-BC nine-member team began meeting in September three to four times a month with the number of practices increasing recently in preparation for Saturday’s event.
In addition to the robotics game, team members worked on a group project, which they will present to judges focusing on the theme: Play.
“This year’s focus was getting kids outside to play — regardless of their limitations,” Moore said. “Team members explored activities they could do in different spaces. The bottom line “Get out and PLAY.”
The H-BC students developed an application called “H.E.L.P. Heroes,” which encourages users to complete various physical or educational activities outdoors.
As activities are completed, app users are rewarded with points or badges of success. The app also connects with “friends” or other children using the app looking to “play.”
For the robotics game, H-BC students have programmed their LEGO robot named Pistachio to complete various tasks or missions. The more difficult the mission, the more points the team earns. Teams with the most points win the competition.
Moore said team members focus themselves in certain areas.
“They each bring something unique to the table and I notice they find joy in different areas,” she said.
Some students like the LEGO building aspect, others enjoy programming and setting up the missions, some work on the presentation and others organized the team building activities.
Team members for the 2020-21 school year include eighth-graders Mazzi Moore, Bailey Spykerboer, Gracie Fagerness, Rebekah Swenson, seventh-grader Gavin Voss, and sixth-graders Carielynne Merson, Ava Steinhoff, Tatyana Williams and AJ Foote.