Joint Cooper/Spring Hill Robotics Team Wins Regional Tournament

Ruth C. Donahue Orchestra Director, Spring Hill Elementary School sent along this news from its Robotics Team.

The “Master Minds" First Lego Robotics Team from Cooper Middle and Spring Hill Elementary Schools in McLean  won the Division 2 First Lego League "Food Factor" Regional Tournament held in November at George Mason University.

The Master Minds team, two eighth graders from Cooper MS and four sixth graders at Spring Hill ES, competed at the State Tournament held on December 3 - 4 at James Madison University. The team placed fourth in the Division 2 First Lego League state tournament. Division 2 is a middle school competition level. (http://www.vadcfll.org)

The Master Minds First Lego Robotics team won two Division 2 trophies at the VA-DC Regional Tournament. They won the Division 2 First Place trophy for "Robot Performance", meaning the Master Mind's robot completed a set number of missions with the highest score within two and 1/2 minutes. The second trophy was for the Division 2 Second Place "Champion's Award" for overall performance in every category including Robot design and performance, teamwork, communication and project presentation.

The Master Minds were judged on four categories including: Robot Design, Robot Performance, Teamwork, Research development and presentation of a topic related to this year’s food theme which was "Food Safety".

Master Minds Team coach and parent, Becky Corcoran said the team chose “Organic Grains in Bulk Storage” as the focus for their community research project and the presentation portion of the competition. “The boys interviewed managers at MOM's Market in Rockville, Whole Foods and Potomac Vegetable Farm in Vienna and created a presentation for judges about what they learned”, said Corcoran.

The public school Master Minds Team includes Cooper Middle School eighth graders Brandon Arcari and Steven Corcoran and Spring Hill Elementary School sixth graders Brad Kim, David Corcoran, Michael Arcari and Thomas Corcoran. This is the third year the team has been invited to compete at the state tournament at JMU.

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