- November 22, 2024
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Imagine School at Town Center hosted one of its first pep rallies as a rousing send as its Electro-Lions robotics club heads to an international championship competition in Houston, Texas.
The Electro-Lions team is competing in a youth robotics competition called FIRST — “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” — Lego League. The competition will be held April 17-20, and the robotics team and its two coaches left for Texas on April 15.
The team wouldn't be able to go though, if it weren't for the support of its school. The Electro-Lions had one month to raise the $20,000 for the trip to Texas, and multiple other clubs at the school donated for their trip, said Kristen Cook, Electro-Lions coach and Imagine school teacher.
"We've had so much support from our school. This is the most support we've ever had," Cook said. "So, this season, it really felt like the the whole school community gathered around us to get us there."
The FIRST LEGO League World Championship is a prestigious competition that challenges teams to design, build, and program robots to perform complex tasks, an Imagine School press release said.
This year, Cook said, the challenge is called "Masterpiece," and focuses on using technology within hobbies. After several surveys, the Lions chose to work with the topics of mental health and video games. Using an EEG — a medical device that tracks brain waves — the Lions developed a project that would alert gamers to high stress levels while they played.
The kids even ran experiments by having people play video games while wearing the EEG machine and studied the data, Cook said.
"We've actually been able to put this experiment into play," Cook said. "It is so cool the stuff that they've done."