Cedars Lego Robotics Team Selected for National Competition!

Last Saturday, November 5, Cedars Christian College sent their first Lego Robotics Team to a State Competition of FLL (First Lego League). This is a very challenging competition that combines lego and robotics. Cedars team of team of eight, was one of 30 teams which competed at Macquarie University. Out of the 30 teams, 5 were selected to compete in the National Championship to be held on December 3, again at Macquarie University.

Taking out the very prestigious, "Mechanical Design Award", the team are thrilled with their result and ecstatic about making it to the FLL National Competition. They have been working on their lego robotics skills for the year and in the last few months preparing tirelessly for the State Competition.

Cedars Dean of Learning, Mr Lukas Matysek, shared in the team’s success on Saturday as he watched them work together as a team to make their dream come true of reaching the Nationals.

Lukas said, "Many people are probably not aware of the breadth of this competition, far from the robot/lego aspect of it. This competition assessed team work, productive group collaboration and individual graciousness. For instance when a competition rule was applied perhaps unfairly to our team, no one complained even though they probably had grounds. I was told later that if we had, we would not have progressed to the nationals. A good lesson for us adults." He went on to say that, "Daniel West, Year 10, handled the team of eight students from Year 3 to Year 8, all working to their strengths, capacity and inclinations. I saw him develop as a leader and adopt innovative solutions to challenges." "The competition had three parts:

On the day the team with the best performing robot did not score a place in the nationals, due to lesser scores in the other two aspects of the competition."

Lukas continued, "What strikes me as extraordinary is that while research project was very good, engaging in presentation and innovative. The core values of gracious professionalism and integrity were wrapped in a non competitive framework yielding their success. Not all students (or people) are competitive but still can aspire and achieve excellence. They exhibited good sportsmanship without sweating at all!"

2011 has seen Cedars offer a Robotics Club every Thursday and/or Friday afternoon, run by Andrew Clark, last year’s National Winner of FLL. Students from other schools have been a part of the exciting Robo Club and entered a separate team in the competition which performed very well also.

The information for the Robo Club held here at Cedars Christian College, Waples Rd, Farmborough Hts can be obtained by calling Cedars office on 42 718124.

The Cedars Team selected for Nationals included the following Cedars students:

Jacob Smith Year 8

Nathaniel Hutchison Year 8

Isabella Jaque Year 6

Daniel West Year 10

Silas Kerridge Year 3

Blake Blackmore Year 4

Jacob PesaventoYear 7 

Aris Chrissostomidis Year 5