Riverview Elementary’s “Crooked Gears” Lego Robotics Wins First Place

Crooked Gears  from left to right: Zoee Wass, Justin Wass, Charlotte Baker, Dylan Robeson, Tanner Logan, Wyatt Westbrook, Armon Jones, Joslyn Madsen, CJ Harris, Jerri Kearns.

Going, going, gold! Crooked Gears, a team from Riverview Elementary School (RES) in Dayton, NV executes three rounds of Robot Competition and as they receive their scores they realize they’re going to win first place in the Robot Competition at the Northern Nevada First Lego League Championships.  The event was held at Joe Crowley Student Union on the University of Nevada, Reno campus.  Crooked Gears is a team of 4th to 6th graders from RES – they are coached by Justin Wass, Jerri Kearns and administrator Jill De Pasquale. Wass, Kearns and De Pasquale are all Lyon County School District educators who dedicate their time to coach the Lego Robotics teams at RES.

Crooked Gears won the Robot Competition, one of four aspects that comprise the competition.  The team, although made up of 4th to 6th graders excelled and beat home, private and charter school teams that had 4th to 8th graders. Kearns and De Pasquale express their excitement. “When we realized we were going to get first place I couldn’t stop crying,” says De Pasquale.  The students worked tirelessly to prepare for competition day where they have their coaches for guidance but they are on their own when it comes to presenting their core values, how their work with the robotics played into their community and coding the robots to execute their missions.  Their administrator De Pasquale continues,

It is so amazing to watch the team problem solve and grow up together.  I wish everyone could see that process.  They work and develop as a team but they also grow individually.  Being on the team forces them to keep good grades and away from behavior problems otherwise they won’t be participating in the fun of the competition.  The students just turn it on on competition days and interact so professionally with other teams – not only are they mastering the Lego Robotics, they are also mastering other life skills.

In addition, Jill De Pasquale won the Coach of the Year award from the Northern Nevada First Lego League.  She has been with the program since it started and it is an honor well deserved.  

RES Lego Robotics Administrator Jill De Pasquale and Teacher/Coach Jerri Kearns

This is the fourth season RES has teams compete in the First Lego League robotics competitions.  In their first year, they scored a total of 27 points in the Robot competition, which was a huge accomplishment to physically get the robot completing missions on its own.  This year, the one round alone that secured their spot as winners was scored at 118 points.  RES Lego Robotics has come a long way since their initial season only four years ago.  Dedication and creativity have contributed to the team’s success as most of the group comes in before and after school and on vacation breaks.  In addition, some of the designs force them to work out of the pre-made Lego instructions.  They have two other teams of 4th to 6th graders and two junior teams of 2nd to 3rd graders.  The team hopes to build on their success to become the team from Northern Nevada that advances to the next competition at Lego Land in Houston, TX.  The team is scored on four aspects – core values, community project, coding and robot competition.  Crooked Gear’s community project aspect of their scoring has focused on using their teamwork to advance their greenhouse, which is newly upgraded.  They hope to build on their past success and augment their impact in their community project.