Brainy Builders earn top honors at FLL Championship

The Brainy Builders are a First Lego League team consisting of six 7th graders from Pacific Trails, Santa Fe Christian and Carmel Valley Middle School. On Dec. 11, they competed in the 2021-2022 Southern California First Lego League Championship at Poway High School. The team was tasked with creating a lego robot that could autonomously accomplish multiple tasks as well as an innovation project that could improve shipping cargo.

Jackson, Trey and Chloe preparing for competition.

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During the robot competition, the judges applauded the team’s advanced coding and engineering.

“I enjoy programming. It was fun to take what I learned outside the program and then work together with good friends and incorporate all our ideas,” said Jackson, 12.

For the innovation project Miles states, “We worked with very generous experts who gave us feedback and helped us improve our solution. Each team member has unique skills they added. Teamwork like we have is very rare.”

Miles, Jackson and Chloe making quick programming changes.

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Their innovation project tackled the problem of packaging waste by creating a reusable shipping container with an inflatable interior and a QR code to limit labeling waste. The team received the prestigious top honors for their innovation project and have completed a provisional patent application.

“We made it this far because of all the hard work we put in. I learned a lot about engineering and programming,” said Chloe, 12. The team has been working together for six years and stayed together despite separating for middle school this past year.

Milan proving the innovation project worked by mailing an egg across San Diego.

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“Working with friends was what I looked forward to most. We go to different schools now and this brings us together.” Callum said. The team met four to five times per week.

“Whether it was an after-school meeting or a 10 o’clock coding session we always found a way to have fun,” Trey, 13, said. “Our team really really wants to thank our coach Chris Riddle. He always supports us and believes in us.”

“ He is the best coach we could ever ask for,” added Milan, 12.