Galaxy Girls First Lego League team earns trip to championships

The Galaxy Girls, a local First Lego League team, had an out-of-this-world finish at their first-ever competitive tournament on Nov. 10. The team of fourth grade girls from Solana Ranch Elementary School earned a first place award in the Robot Game at the Poway qualifying tournament with the highest point total for the day. The girls were also awarded a second place judges award for Core Values which focuses on soft skills like teamwork, inclusion, cooperation and team spirit.

Their efforts secured them a spot in the FLL Championships at Legoland in December.

The Galaxy Girls include Audrey Young, Disha Ramachadran, Kaylee Kim, Emily Cameron, Joanna Kim and Phoebe Young. Brand new to First Lego League (FLL), they started meeting in June 2019 guided by teen mentor JT Young, a Torrey Pines High School sophomore on the school’s Millennium Falcons First Robotics Competition (FRT) team. JT taught them the basics of EV3 robot design and block programming, and also brought in former teammates from Singularity FTC to help with the mentoring efforts.

In September, the team began working on the 2019 Robot challenge and preparing for their first competitive tournament. Galaxy Girls’ coaches, mentors and parents are so proud of these spirited young ladies.

-Karen Billing