Help BDMS Robotics Team take on the world
Donation protected
The BDMS Robotics Team has earned a spot to compete on the world stage, now help them financially get to the Japan competition and proudly represent our community of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and the United States!
The Megaminds FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team from the Beaver Dam Middle School qualified to advance to the Open International Japan tournament at the Wisconsin State FLL Championship on February 8th. The Open International Japan tournament will be held on May 8-10 in Nagoya, Japan and will host 80 teams from 52 different countries from around the world.
The BDMS Megaminds FLL Robotics team is one of only 7 teams invited to represent the United States. This is a once-in-a-lifetime honor for these aspiring STEM middle schoolers!
Who are the Megaminds?
The Megaminds are a team of 6-8th grade students. They began working in August to identify and solve a community problem as well as build and program a robot for the first competition in November. The team of 9 is comprised of four 8th graders, two 7th graders, and three 6th graders. All have participated in an FLL team before except for two and were previously on three different teams. Only four had reached the State level of competition before so a team goal was to work hard so all members would have the opportunity to compete at State.
The Project
Each team must identify a problem and develop a solution meeting the challenge theme. This year’s challenge is called City Shaper and requires solving a problem impacting their community. The team met with Mayor Glewen and they learned one problem in Beaver Dam is the number of vacant buildings. While researching, they discovered BDMS students want and need a place for teens to hang out. Through sharing their solution with local experts and community members, they learned they needed to revise the initial solution several times to make it financially viable. Their final solution to the problem is to renovate a vacant building in downtown Beaver Dam into a family entertainment center to provide a fun and safe environment for teens and families to socialize. The center would contain many types of games, a food court, and social and quiet areas. The team has connected with an investor who is interested in making the project a reality for the Beaver Dam Community. The Megaminds have been investing 4-6 hours a week since August trying to make the Beaver Dam Community a better place.
The Robot
In addition to the project, the team designed, built, and programmed a LEGO Mindstorm EV3 robot to complete as many missions as possible in two minutes and 30 seconds. Missions include building and programming their robot to move, push, lift, and turn various items to score points. The team evaluated all of the missions and came up with a way to rank them using a bubble chart. They received the Strategy and Innovation award for their approach at their first two competitions. You can view a video clip of a robot run here: Robot Run
The Results
Regional Competition
The first level of competition the team participated in was at Marquette University High School on Nov. 16. They placed fourth overall and ninth in robot performance. They were nominated for the Innovative Solution and Champion Awards and won the Strategy and Innovation Award for robot design and qualified for the Sectional competition.
Sectional Competition
The second level of competition was at Mukwonago High School on Dec. 14, where the team placed fifth overall and fifth in robot performance. They again won the Strategy and Innovation Award for robot design and advanced to the State Championship
State Championship
The team competed with the top 36 teams in Wisconsin and finished 7th overall and 13th in robot performance with the teams’ highest score of 400 points. They were nominated for the Gracious Professionalism Award. This award recognizes the team’s focus on the core values of teamwork, inclusion, innovation, impact, and discovery. The team hosted a STEM Night at the Beaver Dam Middle School and worked with the younger Washington Elementary FLL team.
Your Impact
Any contribution you make will go directly to covering the cost of the team to attend the event. We need to raise $31,000 to be able to send the team and a parent to Japan. Each team attending is responsible for the cost of airfare, hotel, registration, and food.
Each person traveling will need to cover these costs which total $2,144 per person:
$1300 - Airfare from Milwaukee to Nagoya Japan
$325 - Hotel stay - LEGOLand Resort Hotel (closest hotel to the event)
$250 - Event fee
$100 - Food
$32 - Legoland Pass
$115 - Passport
$22 - Transportation between airport and hotel
The BDMS Megaminds will not be able to compete in Japan without financial support!
Generous supporters of $500 or more will be rewarded with their name or logo on the back of the team t-shirts.
Contributions can also be mailed to:
Beaver Dam High School-Megaminds
Attn: Anne Pearson
500 Gould St
Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Donations made to the team are tax deductible.
Press:
Daily Dodge/WBEV Breaktime Radio Show - February 17
Daily Citizen Article - February 17
Daily Dodge Article - February 11th
Daily Citizen Article Link - January 30
About FIRST LEGO League:
The FIRST® LEGO® League program is built around theme-based Challenges to engage children ages 9 to 14 in research, problem-solving, coding, and engineering. The foundation of the program is the FIRST® Core Values, which emphasizes teamwork, discovery, and innovation. Students emerge more confident, excited, and equipped with the skills they need in a changing workforce. Learn more about FLL at www.firstlegoleague.org
The Megaminds FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team from the Beaver Dam Middle School qualified to advance to the Open International Japan tournament at the Wisconsin State FLL Championship on February 8th. The Open International Japan tournament will be held on May 8-10 in Nagoya, Japan and will host 80 teams from 52 different countries from around the world.
The BDMS Megaminds FLL Robotics team is one of only 7 teams invited to represent the United States. This is a once-in-a-lifetime honor for these aspiring STEM middle schoolers!
Who are the Megaminds?
The Megaminds are a team of 6-8th grade students. They began working in August to identify and solve a community problem as well as build and program a robot for the first competition in November. The team of 9 is comprised of four 8th graders, two 7th graders, and three 6th graders. All have participated in an FLL team before except for two and were previously on three different teams. Only four had reached the State level of competition before so a team goal was to work hard so all members would have the opportunity to compete at State.
The Project
Each team must identify a problem and develop a solution meeting the challenge theme. This year’s challenge is called City Shaper and requires solving a problem impacting their community. The team met with Mayor Glewen and they learned one problem in Beaver Dam is the number of vacant buildings. While researching, they discovered BDMS students want and need a place for teens to hang out. Through sharing their solution with local experts and community members, they learned they needed to revise the initial solution several times to make it financially viable. Their final solution to the problem is to renovate a vacant building in downtown Beaver Dam into a family entertainment center to provide a fun and safe environment for teens and families to socialize. The center would contain many types of games, a food court, and social and quiet areas. The team has connected with an investor who is interested in making the project a reality for the Beaver Dam Community. The Megaminds have been investing 4-6 hours a week since August trying to make the Beaver Dam Community a better place.
The Robot
In addition to the project, the team designed, built, and programmed a LEGO Mindstorm EV3 robot to complete as many missions as possible in two minutes and 30 seconds. Missions include building and programming their robot to move, push, lift, and turn various items to score points. The team evaluated all of the missions and came up with a way to rank them using a bubble chart. They received the Strategy and Innovation award for their approach at their first two competitions. You can view a video clip of a robot run here: Robot Run
The Results
Regional Competition
The first level of competition the team participated in was at Marquette University High School on Nov. 16. They placed fourth overall and ninth in robot performance. They were nominated for the Innovative Solution and Champion Awards and won the Strategy and Innovation Award for robot design and qualified for the Sectional competition.
Sectional Competition
The second level of competition was at Mukwonago High School on Dec. 14, where the team placed fifth overall and fifth in robot performance. They again won the Strategy and Innovation Award for robot design and advanced to the State Championship
State Championship
The team competed with the top 36 teams in Wisconsin and finished 7th overall and 13th in robot performance with the teams’ highest score of 400 points. They were nominated for the Gracious Professionalism Award. This award recognizes the team’s focus on the core values of teamwork, inclusion, innovation, impact, and discovery. The team hosted a STEM Night at the Beaver Dam Middle School and worked with the younger Washington Elementary FLL team.
Your Impact
Any contribution you make will go directly to covering the cost of the team to attend the event. We need to raise $31,000 to be able to send the team and a parent to Japan. Each team attending is responsible for the cost of airfare, hotel, registration, and food.
Each person traveling will need to cover these costs which total $2,144 per person:
$1300 - Airfare from Milwaukee to Nagoya Japan
$325 - Hotel stay - LEGOLand Resort Hotel (closest hotel to the event)
$250 - Event fee
$100 - Food
$32 - Legoland Pass
$115 - Passport
$22 - Transportation between airport and hotel
The BDMS Megaminds will not be able to compete in Japan without financial support!
Generous supporters of $500 or more will be rewarded with their name or logo on the back of the team t-shirts.
Contributions can also be mailed to:
Beaver Dam High School-Megaminds
Attn: Anne Pearson
500 Gould St
Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Donations made to the team are tax deductible.
Press:
Daily Dodge/WBEV Breaktime Radio Show - February 17
Daily Citizen Article - February 17
Daily Dodge Article - February 11th
Daily Citizen Article Link - January 30
About FIRST LEGO League:
The FIRST® LEGO® League program is built around theme-based Challenges to engage children ages 9 to 14 in research, problem-solving, coding, and engineering. The foundation of the program is the FIRST® Core Values, which emphasizes teamwork, discovery, and innovation. Students emerge more confident, excited, and equipped with the skills they need in a changing workforce. Learn more about FLL at www.firstlegoleague.org
Fundraising team: FLL2975 Megaminds (3)
Brian Lerwick
Organizer
Beaver Dam, WI
Frank Ferree
Team member
Melissa Hemling
Team member
