This group of homeschooled students is the top Lego robotics team in Vermont

WILLISTON ― In a Williston basement on a Friday afternoon, the Green Mountain Homeschool Robotics team was getting ready for the big one – the world competition. Today’s training mission: make the chicken spin.

This brick avian had been causing consternation. If the team could manage getting the robot to the station that held the chicken and use attachments and precise movements to make the chicken turn multiple quarter turns, they could gain more points. A revelation struck when J.J. Garcia approached the problem in a new way.

“I think we’ve just stumbled upon a breakthrough,” he said as he excitedly and breathlessly rattled off how a modification to the front end of their robot could be the solution. “This is the top LEGO robotics team in Vermont – it’s chaos!”

The middle schoolers had beaten the odds – and more than 60 teams from public schools – to win their region and the state competition, not once, but twice. And, this year the team was invited to compete in the world First LEGO League championship for their age bracket, to be held April 17 to 20 in Houston.

Vermont doesn’t get invited every year to the world competition, but this year the team won a spot by lottery.

The trip is an opportunity to compete with other teams from across the world, scope out possible career paths utilizing robotics and engineering, and win prizes, from money, to a personal tour of the LEGO facility in Denmark, to a life-size Tesla made of LEGO bricks.

It will be “the furthest I’ve ever been,” said Ted Agnew, a 12-year old team member, for whom the trip will mark his first time flying in an airplane.

How a homeschool team built its way to the top in Vermont middle school LEGO robotics

The Green Mountain Homeschool Robotics teams is comprised of four students: Ted Agnew, 12, from Jericho; Arielle Brkovic, 12, of Fletcher; Emilyn Lienen, 10, of Colchester; and J.J. Garcia, 10, of Williston.

The four meet in J.J.’s grandmother’s basement, and his dad − Luis Garcia, a civil and environmental engineering professor − is the coach. While the older Garcia helped set things up during the group’s meeting in February, he followed the young engineers’ lead as they worked to solve their own challenges – that was until their attention waned and it was time for a break.

The set-up seems to work for the group, which meets regularly during the day two times a week as they prepare for worlds.

There are disadvantages to being a homeschool team. They may not have access to public school funds, PTA, or a booster club to raise money to compete.

The team is hoping to raise $12,000 for transportation, lodging and half of the team’s entry fee through crowdfunding and corporate sponsorships. Fortunately, the First Vermont Robotics state organization pitched in half of the $2,000 entry fee.

One advantage is having a much more flexible schedule than their public school counterparts.

“They cannot have hot tea brought to them or a stuffed plushy break," J.J. said. "There's also something called the cuddle Walter necessary rule."

He explained if any member was cross with their teammates, they were required to spend time petting the Giant Bull Mastiff to improve their mood.

'Spirit' of competition

Each year, teams build their robots and program them to navigate the same obstacles and distances and perform the same types of tasks at stations set up across the mat.

During competition, teams may have two-and-a-half minutes to complete as many of the 13 possible challenges. Some challenges yield more points, so there is strategy involved in deciding which ones to attempt and in which order. Teams can make three runs and the one with the highest score is recorded.

Even though teams perfect their code during practice, competition can bring slight differences – like how slick or sticky the competition mat is – and a team may pivot and make same-day coding changes.

The Green Mountain Homeschool Robotics team named their primary robot “Spirit” and even created a baby book detailing its construction and milestones. If Spirit loses its – well, spirit – on game day, “Pickles,” their backup robot, can provide components.

The robot’s design and the points scored from the mat challenge are just two of four criteria on which teams are judged. How well teams represent core values that include working respectfully with each other is another. Plus each team created an innovative coding project that, this year, must incorporate the arts. Team members deliver a presentation about their project to the judges. Points are awarded in all four categories and the total determines the winner.

On a mission – a personal one

J.J.’s grandfather on his mother’s side was blind all of his life and loved the natural world. When it came time to come up with an art-based coding project that addressed a need, he provided the inspiration.

The team came up with a stone-carving kit and associated app that would assist visually impaired with exploring the artform of carving. A hunk of soapstone – which is a softer carving medium – carving tools, protective glasses, a spray bottle, as well as 3D printed models for the person to feel with their hands and replicate, made up the kit. A QR code would take the artist to an app with large, bright buttons that allow a person to choose from among eight different figures to create. Audio prompts help with navigating the app as well as describe step-by-step carving instructions.

The team consulted with various local groups serving the blind and arts communities to hone their project and was encouraged to find stone carving among the blind has been around for some time.

Polly Garcia, J.J's mother, said the artist community has always been inclusive and technology is providing a path for greater access for people like her father.

After competition season ends, the group plans to stock local libraries with the kits and will provide some for a youth summer camp this year.

Robotics: charting a bright future

LEGO robotics programs help hone technical, cooperative and creative problem-solving skills that the adult supporters of the Green Mountain Homeschool Robotics team believe will pay dividends for these young engineers’ futures. Already, some of the youths have a desire to continue robotics and coding into their high school years and possibly professionally. For homeschool students who don’t get as many opportunities to challenge their peers, it’s an opportunity to succeed.

Ted competes in basketball and baseball, too, but robotics has spurred a new passion. “It’s one of the only things I’ve had success in.”

Though it’s a small state, Vermont is making significant gains attracting tech business and the time to grow that workforce is now. In J.J.’s words, “Just because you’re from Vermont doesn’t mean you can’t do big things and go places.”

Next stop, Texas in April. And then, who knows where.

Contact reporter April Barton at abarton@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1854. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter @aprildbarton.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Homeschool Lego robotics team from VT at world competition in Texas