More than 150 Hillsborough students build LEGOs in robotics competition

TAMPA, Fla. - As the school year wraps up, many students are using all the knowledge they’ve learned to study for final exams.

For 154 elementary students, they’re tapping into that knowledge to build LEGOs and race cars. The third, fourth and fifth graders are competing in an annual Hillsborough County robotics competition.

"They’ve been practicing these skills all throughout the year," Hillsborough County Schools K-5 Science Supervisor Shana Tirado said. "The great part about today is they don't know what they're walking into. It's a spontaneous challenge, and so they really have to put their skills to the test."

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The spontaneous challenge is where the LEGOs come in. Pairs of students are given a challenge related to earth science, physical science or life science. The students are given 45 minutes to build a machine needed to complete a task. For example, picking up food (a small LEGO block) and taking it to shelter.

"You'll see they have their science notebooks out, and they're using, hopefully, their science notebooks to go back to prior coding programs that they've used to solve other kinds of challenges that help them be successful today," Tirado said.

Tirado loves the variety of solutions that each individual mind creates. The knowledge that the students are using was first taught at the beginning of the school year. She explained that teachers will look for examples of when to use LEGOs to teach a lesson with a "hands on" approach. Those lessons also build the foundations for coding and problem-solving.

"All of these challenges are parts of topics that they study in school related to science concepts," Tirado said.

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Other students are competing in the Solar Car Racin’ Rays event, where the students have to engineer a solar car based on a bit to compete in time trials and races.

"There’s a lot of on-the-spot engineering," Tirado said.

The final challenge of the day at MOSI was "Shark Tank" style presentations, where students presented solutions to real-world problems, using skits, products or prototypes.

Students from 23 different schools participated in the competition, free of charge. Hillsborough County funds the products and programs through grants. Tirado hopes more schools will participate in the future.

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