The Littleton teams, sponsored by Littleton Education Fund, KISS Robotics, and Foster-Miller, Inc., worked on learning to program in a language similar to C+, to design moving parts using Lego pieces and metal brackets, to figure out how to attach pieces together, to use motors and gears to make moving parts, and to program the robots to perform the desired actions.  They began meeting in the fall, but increased their meeting times over the past two months in order to be prepared for the tournament.  They had to document their decision-making and the engineering process as they designed, built, tested, and revised their robots over and over again.  The Littleton Middle School team was coordinated by teacher-leaders Joseph Flournoy and Valerie Finnerty, and the Littleton High School team was led by Cheryl Harrington.

This was the second year for the middle school, and the first for the new high school team.  Both teams managed to win several rounds in the double-elimination part of the tournament.  The middle school team experienced particular success because they greatly improved their robot design and programming over last year.  They managed to design, build and program two robots this year, and mastered complicated programming such as using the camera to get the robot to search for a particular color object.

The excitement was high in Lowell on Saturday, March 28 as the Littleton Middle and High School Botball teams competed in the regional Botball tournament.  The teams’ hard work paid off, as both teams made it through several of the double-elimination rounds.  The middle school team was honored with the award for “Outstanding Middle School Team”.  The award was given based on their performance at the competition and their documentation and presentation of their strategies.  The students were thrilled to receive the award.  Sixth grader Devin Finnerty enjoyed participating in Botball; “It was a great experience.  I have high hopes for next year!”