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Westminster Woods PS students to solve real-world problems in LEGO STEM challenge

September 19, 2017

GUELPH, Ontario – Westminster Woods Public School students are tackling real-world water problems, by competing in a global science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) challenge.

Two teams from the Guelph school have entered the FIRST LEGO League Challenge – which will see thousands of students compete this fall. The FIRST LEGO League Challenge is open to students in grades 4 to 8. There are also similar challenges for younger and older students.

Teams research a real-world challenge and using a LEGO MINDSTORMS robot set, they must design, build and program a robot to develop a solution to their problem.

Students from Westminster Woods PS are competing the 2017 First Lego League Challenge (pictured Sept. 19, 2017).

This year’s challenge theme is all about water. Students will research and identify a problem within the human water system – something that is important to them – and will come up with a solution together.

In their initial brainstorm sessions, students said that some of the issues that resonated with them have been issues like ground water mining, algae blooming and solutions to cleaning polluted water.

Students from Westminster Woods PS are competing the 2017 First Lego League Challenge (pictured Sept. 19, 2017).

Over the next few months, the grade 7-8 students at Westminster Woods, along with staff coaches volunteering their time, will brainstorm, collaborate, design and build. Once they’ve determined their solution to the challenge, they will share their solution with local groups – people who store, transport and use water, for instance. All of this work leads up to a tournament where they’ll compete against other teams from the region, presenting their work and solution in a creative way.

On Tuesday, representatives from Synnex Canada were at the school to donate $1,200 to the teams, so they could participate in the challenge. The school said they wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help from Synnex.

On Sept. 19, 2017, representatives from Synnex Canada were at Westminster Woods Public School to present a cheque for $1,200 to the school so that teams can compete in the FIRST LEGO League Challenge.

Representatives from Synnex and school staff all commended the students for their creativity, their willingness to work as a team and put in extra hours outside of class time. The skills that the youth bring to their teams range from proficiency in coding and programming to building, presenting and marketing.

The final tournament will be held on December 2, 2017, in Waterloo, Ontario. We can’t wait to see what these Trail Blazers come up with!

Students from Westminster Woods PS are competing the 2017 First Lego League Challenge (pictured Sept. 19, 2017).

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