Photos provided by Mrs. Julie Pierce
On March 21 and 22, the Pawnee City Middle School First Lego League team competes on the UNL City Campus. When asked about the event, Coach Pierce replied, "This year's theme was Submerged. Teams were asked to solve a problem related to the ocean biome. Pawnee City had two teams that competed in the FLL tournament.
Lego Wrangler #1 was made up of Lisa Holthus, Abigail Johnson, Rhett Johnson, Abigail Wempe, and Halli Yunghans. They chose to solve an issue with hermit crabs. Hermit crabs use discarded shells from other creatures for protection. The group found out that hermit crabs are a keystone species that, if they die off, many other ocean creatures would be affected. The team decided to try to 3D print shells that hermit crabs could use as protection.
Jason Cumley, Avery Lewis, Megan Portrey, Isaac Rottinghaus, Phillip Rottinghaus, and Kohen Vetrovsky were on the Lego Wrangler #2 team. They chose to solve the issue of ghost nets in the ocean. Ghost nets are discarded fishing nets that are left in the ocean. Ghost nets cause harm to many animals in the ocean. They create biocatch, which is when the net continues to catch fish that cannot escape and die. The team is exploring the use of a submersible vehicle that could see and retrieve ghost nets.
Both teams also competed in the robot challenge part of FLL. The teams designed a robot to complete as many missions as possible in 2 1/2-minute games."
Coaches are Julie Pierce and Adam Robertson.
