News : Lego League success: Two VSMS teams advance to state; another wins robot design award

Two of the three Vinton-Shellsburg Middle School Lego League teams advanced to state during the regional event in Marion on Saturday. A third team was honored with the Robot Design Award. Advancing to state are the seventh grade members of the H2OFros and the sixth grade team, Aquatic Alliance of Pufferfish. The Cyborg Sharks, another sixth grade team, won the Robot Design Championship. The Pufferfish and H2O Fros will be working on their robot and other presentations as they prepare for the State contest next month. Each year, the Lego League challenges includes a specific theme, and students must choose a problem to solve in that area. This year's theme is Hydrodynamics. The students chose to address solutions to a variety of water-related challenges. "Basically, they had to find a solution to a problem related to the human usage of water," explains ELP teacher and Lego League coach Jeff Mangold. One team discussed lead filters, another focused on a water shortage in Tripoli, Libya. The students also heard a presentation from Craig Walker, who works with Vinton water and sewer issues. The H2O Fro's (Big Hair, Big Ideas) chose to study lead poisoning in tap water. Their solution is the water canary, a device that instantly detects lead in water. The fastest working kit sold currently takes ten minutes to detect lead in your water. They came up with the name water canary from miners that would go into mines with a canary to detect dangerous gases. Team members include: