This past weekend, Durham College hosted the first of two Ontario Provincial Championships for FIRST LEGO League (FLL). This event would not have been possible without our sponsors: HATCH, SYNNEX Canada, MDA, Qualcomm, Ontario Power Generation, Durham College, UOIT, the Yves Landry Foundation and CanCode.
Thank you to our opening ceremonies speakers Elaine Popp, Vice President – Durham College, Dan Carter, Mayor of Oshawa, and John Henry, Durham Regional Chair, for taking the time to inspire young minds.
With more than 40 teams, 450 participants, and 100 volunteers, this made the Ontario East Championship one of the largest FIRST LEGO League events in Canada. Teams consisting of kids in grades 4-8 from all over Eastern Ontario populated Durham College’s Physical Activity Complex to compete in this year’s challenge: INTO ORBIT.
Teams started the day by going into three judging sessions. During the INTO ORBIT season, teams choose to solve a real-world problem for their project. They also build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® technology to solve a set of missions in the Robot Game. Throughout their experience, teams follow the FIRST signature set of Core Values, celebrating discovery, teamwork, and Gracious Professionalism.
Official robot games began after lunch and the stands were packed. Each match consisted of 2:30 minutes of game play with the referees carefully watching reviewing and scoring. At the same time, our amazing volunteer judges were busy deliberating award winners and the strengths of each team based on initial judging sessions and callback sessions.
“For our team, this has been a life-changing experience. This is not an exaggeration. Through our ups and downs, our successes and challenges, we have seen our kids grow so much in such a short time. We have students on our team who have struggled to collaborate with others in the past; at the tournament, they were cheering not only for their teammates, but for other teams as well.The caliber of research projects about which these young people could passionately speak to – the confidence they possessed that they had answers to difficult problems facing humanity – it was nothing short of astounding.”– Stephanie Guay, Coach, Team 34599 – Clinton Cyber Cougars
As the day ended, everyone gathered in the field area for closing ceremonies for an exhilarating closing ceremonies. Congratulations to the following award winners:
- Champions Award: Team 5831 – Ctrl-Z Bayview Glen
- Gracious Professionalism Award: Team 3127 – Penguin Squad
- Teamwork Award: Team 22428 – Cyberbolts
- Inspiration Award: Team 38473 – Valykrie
- Robot Performance Award: Team 30939 – Talos
- Strategy and Innovation Award: Team 25141 – 3B’s
Programming Award: Team 24343 – Home-Grown- Mechanical Design Award: Team 30939 – Talos
- Presentation Award – Team 38989 – InterGALactic Innovators
- Innovative Solution Award: Team 287 – The Lonely Stars
- Judges Award: Team 40735 – Ice Bound Hounds
- Research Award: Team 34599 – Clinton Cyber Cougars
- Coach/Mentor Award: Jeff Taylor from Team 12513 – T Bots
- Young Adult Mentor Award: Kate Armstrong from Team 22428 – Cyberbots
Events like this one change lives and we’re grateful and ecstatic that so many amazingly talented volunteers believe in the future and help us make this world a better place!
Thank you to Jared Kelso for this awesome video: