by Nick Linscott, CCBS Math Teacher and Lego League Coach

I am proud to report that the Cherokee Creek Boys School LEGO Team finished fourth out of 25 teams at our local qualifier in Seneca, SC.

That means we will be taking our show on the road to the Western South Carolina State Championship for a 60 team tournament.

It was really neat to see our team, out of all of the other teams, chosen to be interviewed in front of the whole crowd of tournament attendees. All eyes were on the Bears – all teams, coaches, officials, and families – as they answered questions about their project. How cool is that?

The guys also earned the Second Place trophy in the Project Presentation category.  Quite a day! This team did all of us proud–great teamwork and very positive and appropriate interactions with all other competitors, volunteers and visitors.  They showed up and represented themselves, their families and our school as Warriors–and we made State.  My goal for them was met.

The championship tournament happens Saturday, Feb. 6 at Easley High School in Easley, S.C.  There are many logistical details to work out to prepare for the Lego League tournament. We will let you know as soon as I have anything definite.  We hope to see you there cheering on our Bears!

Here is the home page of the tournament:  http://scrobotics.org/west-state-championship/

Editor’s Note: This is Nick’s 12th year to take a team to a Lego League competition. We are so grateful for his hard work and dedication to our students.

by Christy Swafford, CCBS Assistant Admissions Director

What all goes into a Middle School Lego League Competition?

Many of you may think you just simply build Legos, OR as many of us did growing up, you get the adults around us to do it. That is not the case with the Lego League Competition taking place this week.

The boys are designing and programming the robots on their own. Nick Linscott, CCBS’s awesome Lego League Coach is there for moral support only.

The boys are judged in the following areas: Robot Design, Project, Core Values, and Robot Game. What do each of these mean, you may ask?

Robot Design: The boys must give a 4-minute presentation on their robot design and why they designed it the way they did. This involves speaking in front of complete strangers and presenting as a team. There are no adults doing the speaking for them. Wow, that takes a lot of courage for anyone!

Project: This year the competition’s project deals with recycling. They boys have to write a script, act it out, and make costumes to get their point across. The specific problem our boys are wanting to solve is how to minimize the number of paper cups we go through on a daily basis for medication distribution. These boys are not afraid to be authentic with anyone. That is enough to win in my book!

Core Values: The boys are judged as a team on how they cooperate together, whether or not they are “professional”, and if they are “gracious” with one another. We believe that they will be heads and shoulders above the competition since they practice cooperation and grace on a daily basis!

Robot Game: The game this year has to deal with picking up trash with the robot they have created. The boys program the robot in order to complete the tasks at hand. They will score points for the tasks they complete.

Needless to say, there is a lot that goes into the Lego League Competition. Our Lego League teams have had wonderful success in the past. Let’s wish the boys good luck as they tackle Lego League Regionals in Seneca on Saturday!