Lego bricks have been around for about 80 years - the last 50 or so with the iconic plastic bricks.
The bricks have evolved dramatically, and the three Chukker Creek Elementary School teams of fifth-graders demonstrated that at a state tournament on Saturday when they had to build real robots to complete missions on a large "field" on a table.
With a total of 20 kids, they competed against 59 other squads at a FIRST Lego League state championship at River Bluff High School in Lexington. Lego Team X finished fifth overall and also took first place for programming capability.
The A+ Lego Learners took ninth place; the Aiken All-Stars team didn't place. All three teams qualified at a region contest in December to advance to the state tournament - one of two held at the same time.
"All of our kids are fifth-graders, but the tournament was open to grades four to eight," said Alecia Kinard, Chukker Creek's teacher for the gifted. "We're teaching them that something like Lego League can prepare them for the workforce. They had to learn how to introduce themselves to adults, demonstrating the robots and answering questions." Tim Arnold, a Savannah River Site manager and a coach, focused on programming the robots.
"The kids spent a lot of time learning how to program correctly and execute it," he said of the Lego X squad. "They had to explain what they had done to the judges, who were impressed with their skill."
Arnold's son, Aiden, is on the team, along with Robin Boyd, Andrew Pencille, Camille Day and Payton Lark. Camille's mother, Caroline, is delighted by the opportunity for all the Chukker students. Camille has always been drawn to language arts and reading, her mom said, "but now she has developed an interest in math, and it's all due to Lego."
At the tournament, the team's robot experienced some bad runs, said Camille, but "We had confidence from the first meet" which led them to the high placement on Saturday.
The Aiken All-Stars squad members created their own app for their tournament. The app was accepted by the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and the Amazon App Store for Android devices.
The All-Stars are Allison Bollig, Eva Buchanan, Kayla Cadden, Blake Oerman, Jack McIlvoy and Leo Myers.
The A+ Lego Learners team members are Emily Pearson, Kaitlyn Golyski, Eliza Gleason, Aaliyah Schuler, Ellie Rocha, Jayden Wall, Madison Ackroyd, Bryson Peterson and David Kingery.
Rob Novit is the Aiken Standard's education reporter.