Lake Oswego Lego Robotics students earn top awards at statewide robotics championship

Over the weekend, budding engineers from Lake Oswego headed to West Linn High School to compete in the 2023-24 Intel Oregon FIRST Lego Challenge Championship Tournament.

“Team Crunky Monkey” placed second in the Robot Design Award and the “Elite Engineers” won the Engineering Excellence Award. Both teams consist of students in grade 4-8 from schools across Lake Oswego.

One hundred and fifty-seven teams from across Oregon competed in the competition and 54 headed to West Linn for the championship.

The FIRST Lego Challenge, organized by FIRST, is one of three robotic competitions that students participate in internationally. The event is for the youngest students who use Lego robotics kits to design their Lego robots for the competition.

Students have the chance to continue their robotics journey after eighth grade by joining a FIRST Tech Challenge team, which works with rovers, or a FIRST Robotics Challenge team, the most competitive level with the biggest teams and the biggest robots.

This year’s theme was “Masterpiece,” and, starting last summer, each team designed a Lego robot to increase participation in a hobby or artistic interest.

“The teams’ robots were built from kits made by Lego but each one featured unique features and programming created by the team members,” the Oregon Robotics Tournament and Outreach Program said in a press release.

The first place Champion’s Award was given to the Portland team “Lego Legends,” which advanced to the 2024 FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas.