Southwood Glen Elementary's 5th & 6th Graders Go to State

The 5th and 6th graders of Southwood Glen Elementary in Franklin competed in a First Lego League Regional Tournament at Marquette University High School on November 21st.

The First Lego League is proving to be an engaging youth initiative that is attracting students to the hands on real world problem solving that sets it apart from other programs. The challenge this season was to look at your community and discover how people, animals, information, and things travel. Once you know how everyone and everything moves, research a problem and come up with a solution or a SMART MOVE to the problem.

The Smart Move Challenge was made up of two main parts. The first part was the project to research how transportation affects your community, create an innovative solution, research it, and give a solution. The second part was the Robot Game. This part consists of designing, building, programming and refining a LEGO robot to achieve different missions on the playing field. There are specific rules and point values that are associated with each mission objective.

The 5th grade team, The Franklin Saber Technobots, received the Teamwork award. The members of the team are Aaron Larson, Andrew Baker, Akeera Karbouski, Nabeel Raza, Austin Geiger, and Brady Lee. Coaches and Mentors are Jeff & Sue Baker and Marcia Larson. (picture not available) Their problem was that there are no bike lanes or sidewalks in front of the Franklin High School. Their solution was to make it safe for kids to get to and from school by installing bike lanes and sidewalks.

The 6th grade team, The Franklin Robo Pups, received the Judge's award for the 2nd consecutive time. The members of the team are Nathan Gennrich, Annalies Kleyheeg, Anthony Ornek, Devin Hildebrand, Mikayla Bell, Aaron Wambach, Adam Curtis, and Jack Cerpich. The coaches and mentors are Todd Cerpich and Doug Gennrich. (see photo) The problem this team researched was that buses are costly to the city. Their solution was to build a skywalk to school, which eliminates the bus transportation. In return, it will be safer and cheaper than using buses.

Along with their team awards both groups are advancing to a State Tournament being held in Osseo, WI on December 5th.