Baldwinsville students shine at First Lego League’s Challenge

January 25, 2023

Twenty-eight students from Elden Elementary, Van Buren Elementary and Ray Middle schools participated in First Lego League’s Challenge, a robotics challenge, on Saturday at Pine Grove Middle School in the East Syracuse-Minoa Central School District. The teams competed against students from several local elementary and middle schools. 

First Lego League is an international, inquiry-based program that teaches students, ages 9-14, about science, technology and collaboration. The local challenge is in its second year and was organized by OCM BOCES.

Students develop and apply their STEM skills to build, evaluate and modify their robots, learn various aspects of programming and system design; and apply and extend their existing math knowledge. 

Our team from Elden Elementary School, which was led by coaches Kim Hunt and Melissa Demjanenko, won the Robot Performance Award. Congratulations Electribuzz! 

Last year was the inaugural year of the challenge and we had one team participate from Elden Elementary. This year we have moved to three teams from three schools. Next year we hope to involve all six of our eligible schools, according to Tony Cardamone, Director of Elementary Curriculum & Instruction (Pre-K-6). Tony also served as a judge in the competition this year. 

“We are very excited and proud to have our students and staff involved in this innovative program,” said Acting Superintendent Joseph DeBarbieri. 

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