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Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Somerset Elementary's FIRST LEGO League Robotics Team
Sportsmanship, smarts, perseverance and kindness are all examples of traits that define a "Whiz Kid." If you know a Whiz Kid from Mendota Heights, Lilydale or Mendota, speak up and let's recognize them!
Each week, Mendota Heights Patch will seek suggestions from readers for individual kids, youth groups, teens, and even sports teams that wow us with their accomplishments. We want to hear about these amazing children and teens and select one each week as the Mendota Heights Patch Whiz Kid. Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to danielle.cabot@patch.com.
This Week's Whiz Kids: Somerset Elementary's FIRST LEGO League Robotics Team
Aiden Jacobs
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A.J. Stringer
Bryson Halsey
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Carter Borgess
Ellie Quehl
Gavin Borgess
Jacob Kinney
Lily Stringer
Logan Finkel
Peter Dean McKenzie
Whiz Kid's Age: 10
Whiz Kid's School: Somerset Elementary
Nominator's Name: Susan Jerabek, team coach
Whiz Kid's Accomplishments: These 10 students made up the first team to represent Somerset in the FIRST Lego League competition. FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," but the competition goes way beyond robotics and mechanical engineering. The children worked together for months to build a robot, as well as research and create a solution to a specific challenge. The team at Somerset this year focused their efforts on ovarian cancer, and their unique solution was a fictional early detection test based on real technologies. Our Somerset team ranked 22 out of 40 teams in their division overall, and in the robot design portion of the competition they ranked 14th. These were fantastic results for a group of first year, fourth graders competing against older, more experienced teams.
Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness: Being a true team—learning compromise, showing respect even while disagreeing or debating about designs, programming, research, etc.