EWS Students Solve Real World Problems with LEGOs

Oyster Bay, N.Y. – Recently, the East Woods School LEGO Robotics team participated in the First Lego League (FLL) Regional Competition at Huntington High School on Saturday, January 25. Twenty-six teams from schools across Long Island took part in this one of seven regional competitions that lead to the Long Island Championship. East Woods was the only independent school at the event, scoring higher than over 60% of the other teams. East Woods’ performance this year also ranked as the top performance in the school's history.

In addition to being scored on their robot's performance, the students also had to give presentations to various panels of judges about their innovative project, including the design process and how they embraced LEGO's core values during their team's season. After each presentation, the judges commented on EWS student’s fantastic teamwork. Ten awards were presented to the teams. The East Woods Spartans Robotics team was chosen to receive the Core Values Inspiration Award. This award celebrates the team that most demonstrates FLL core values, is empowered by the FLL experience and displays extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit.

The team of seven dedicated students have been designing, programming, and testing their unique robot to complete the LEGO mission in this year's City Shaper competition since October. In addition to their extraordinary abilities to work with the robot, the students have also been researching and working with experts in the field on a real-world problem based on the theme, City Shaper. The team focused on how to reduce traffic congestion within the community of Syosset. To thoroughly understand their solution, the students met with various professionals in the field, including County Legislator Josh Lafazan, Urban Planner Sasha Freedman of The Main Street Association, and community outreach members of the Long Island Railroad that are part of the ModernLI Project.

For more information on the East Woods School, please visit www.eastwoods.org or visit the school’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/eastwoodsschool.ews.