The FIRST LEGO League competition was held in First grammar school from Kragujevac on May 23, 2021. Competition was organized by the Foundation 1%, the SerbianTech organization and the Slovenian organization Super Glavce. Nine teams from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina participated, and the host, the team of the First Grammar School of Kragujevac, won the competition.
Challenge Season 2020/21
The teams started preparations for the program back in September 2020, working diligently on designing and programming robots, research work for the Innovative Project and developing Core Values.
The full-day program allowed the participants to express their potential in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics through fun and exciting hands-on learning and the use of didactic materials and LEGO Education Sets.
The opening ceremony was also attended by the rector of the University of Kragujevac, prof. Dr. Nenad Filipović, director of the First Grammar School of Kragujevac, Slavica Marković, director of the State Data Center, Danilo Savić, member of the Kragujevac City Council for Education, Dušan Aleksić, and Dragana Ocokoljić, educational advisor in the Kragujevac City School Administration.
Out of a total of nine teams, the four best-ranked teams won direct placement in the regional competition in Slovenia. For each of the four parts of the project, one winning team was selected that stood out in that part.
Brand Tesla has recognized the importance and the value of the FIRST LEGO League program and organizer and supported this year’s organization of the competition.
The organization of the competition was also supported by the following companies: Jaffa Crvenka, Kolačić Sreće, Rauch, Plantago and Bakery Katarina.
These companies have provided refreshments for the participants, judges and organizers. Also, this season was supported by the company Talks and Folks.
Fun, learning, socialising, strengthening team spirit and collegiality marked this season of the FIRST LEGO League competition, which opened a new chapter in our science.
Parts of the Competition
FIRST LEGO League competition consists of four parts: Robot Game, Robot Design, Innovative Project and Core Value.
Robot Game, the most interactive part of the competition, involved designing and programming a robot that has the task of crossing obstacles on a special surface. Each team, guided by creativity and imagination, designed its own LEGO robot that had two and a half minutes to complete the given missions on the LEGO mat and achieve as many points as possible. The teams had three attempts to score as many points as possible, of which the best score was taken into account at the end, which became the final score for that part of the competition.
Robot Design is the part in which the teams presented their robots to the judges. More precisely, the teams had the task of presenting to the judges the way the robot was designed and programmed, the strategy of designing the robot and the way the robot completes the missions. Through discussion with the teams, the judges drew conclusions about the mentioned characteristics and evaluated them.
Each season, the specificity of the competition lies in the theme of the Innovative Project. Namely, this year’s theme of the project was “RePlay” and was related to designing ways to motivate and encourage people to engage in physical activity. The teams had the task of combining different scientific disciplines to come up with an innovative solution for the stated problem, present how they would incorporate it and present it all to the judges.
What distinguishes this FIRST LEGO League program from similar ones are the Core Values that connect all parts of the competition, teach children teamwork and collegiality in relation to other competitors. The program aims to bring children closer to science, but in an extremely creative and fun way.
Ono što ovaj FIRST LEGO League program razlikuje od njemu sličnih jesu Osnovne vrednosti koje povezuju sve celine takmičenja, uče decu timskom radu i kolegijalnosti u odnosu sa drugim takmičarima. Program teži da deci približi nauku, ali na izuzetno kreativan i zabavan način.
Participants
Seven teams from Serbia and two teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in this year’s FIRST LEGO League Program. All teams counted from five to ten members between the ages of 9 and 16, and were led by two mentors.
The following teams participated in this season:
- LegoBusters from First grammar school from Kragujevac
- ElektRobot from ElektRobot school in Prijepolje and Priboj
- PoliBoti from Politehnika – škola za nove tehnologije in Belgrade
- SportBooster from Regionalni Centar za talente “Mihajlo Pupin” in Pančevo
- Timekeepers from Regionalni Centar za Talente Beograd 2 in Belgrade
- Game Changers from Savremena elementary school in Belgrade
- Noobovi from programming school “Digi Klinci” in Belgrade
- LEGOMasters from primary school “Desanka Maksimović” in Prijedor
- LegoETŠ from Elektrotehnička škola Prijedor in Prijedor
Winners
By participating in this year’s competition, members of all teams received medals and certificates for their demonstrated initiative and desire to learn, however, several teams stood out and deservedly won valuable prizes.
When looking at all parts of the competition and the total points won, the victory at the FIRST LEGO League competition of the 2020/2021 season was won by the “LegoBusters” team from the First grammar school from Kragujevac led by mentors Katarina Veljković, Ana Stanković, Ljubica Mudrić Staniškovski, Marina Jelenić and Mihailo Miletić. By winning first place, the team from Kragujevac secured a direct placement at the regional robotics competition in Slovenia.
Apart from the team from Kragujevac, three more teams won a direct placement to Slovenia – „ElektRobot“ from Prijepolje, team „LEGOMasters“ from Elementary School „Desanka Maksimović“ in Prijedor, as well as „Noobovi“ from programming school „Digi Klinci“ in Belgrade.
These four best-ranked teams showed, first of all, extremely expressed team spirit and cooperation, innovative solutions for the problem they were solving, as well as brilliantly designed and programmed robots that had great success in completing missions.
Also, a prize was awarded for the best teams which stood out in the parts of the competition – Robot Game, Robot Design, Innovative Project and Core Values.
The “PoliBot” team from the Polytechnic – school for new technologies in Belgrade, received the first prize for the robot that most successfully completed all missions on a special platform with LEGO obstacles and thus achieved the most points within the Robot Game as a whole.
The team “ElektRobot” from the eponymous school of electronics, robotics and programming in Prijepolje, won the first prize in the Robot Design section with the best constructed and designed robot.
The team “Noobovi” from the Belgrade programming school “Digi Klinci”, had the most creative solution of the Innovative Project, which this year involved devising a way to encourage activity in people, and thus earned the first prize for the Innovative Project.
The most outstanding team spirit and collegiality had the team “LEGOMasters” from the elementary school “Desanka Maksimović” in Prijedor, which brought it first place in the Core Values category.
Judges
In order for everything to go according to the rules and without any irregularities, a nine-member team of trained judges was assigned to evaluate the teams for all four categories.
In order for the robots to pass the missions respecting all the detailed rules for that part of the competition, three judges closely monitored all the rounds and carefully scored each crossed obstacle. Among them are Stefan Zdravković, Dušan Dimitrijević and Mihailo Šundović.
Zaviša Gordić and Suad Suljović considered and evaluated the way the robot was designed and programmed and how the teams were thinking during the thought process.
The evaluation of the Innovative Project as the most creative part of the competition fell into the hands of Sonja Vasić and Nemanja Đorđević, who looked at the innovative solutions of the teams, as well as why and in what way teams chose those solutions.
Vuk Ninić and Aljoša Šip were the judges who assessed how much and in which way the teams incorporated the Core Values of the competition in everything they do, i.e. during the creation of the project, preparation for the competition, presentation of the results, cooperation during the launch of the robot, completion of missions and others.
The work of the judges and the quality of the judging was under the watchful eye of the Judge Advisor, Anđela Baša, who solved the doubts of the judges, gave them advice and, of course, made a whole team that correctly voted for the winners of this year’s FIRST LEGO League competition season.
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