This year we ran the Girls of Steel FLL Challenge program SuperPowered season in person for the first time since 2019. After two seasons of meeting our teams on Zoom, this year was so much fun. The program ran for 12 weeks from September 10th through December 11, 2022, with a break for Thanksgiving weekend. The teams attended a competitive scrimmage competition on November 5th as well as the FLL championship competition on December 9 and 10, 2022.
The FLL Challenge program was managed by Elise and Mahika the FLL leads – along with Megan, Sophia, Nickjay, Avanti, Aashi – members of the FLL subteam. Other FLL volunteers were: Brigid, Sunny, Natalie, Ash, Harshi, Maddy, Diya, Lucia, Katherine, and Cathy.
We welcomed two guest speakers to our meetings: Mr. Jaret Gibbons talked to the teams about reclaiming coal mining sites and Dr. David Pekker talked to the teams about comparing benefits of renewable energy sources like solar and wind. We are grateful for their expertise.
In addition we hosted our annual – now that we are in person – snack drive for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. We donated more than 60 snack bags for kids.
Below are summaries from each team written by the team captains.
CM Blues FLL 2641: The Blue Team
During the 2022 season, the CM Blues found a solution to collecting and harnessing biomass, and learned how to pseudocode and code using LEGO SPIKE. We designed a robot that works using a multipurpose hook/push arm. In addition, the blue team coded the robot to navigate around the table efficiently, and consistently complete missions such as the windmill, innovation project, and many more, even though we at first had difficulty with the hand and electric car missions. We all enjoyed the hula hoop core values activity. Overall, the 2022 season taught us how to better code and present, and the projects we worked on taught us problem solving and communication skills to help us work as a coherent team.
Our favorite FLL moments were winning a first place award for the innovation project, watching our robot working correctly, and seeing our completed project model and poster board.
Fun facts about our team: A lot of us enjoy art, and we all work well accomplishing our common goals using our different talents.
Our team worked well together. Here are some highlights of each team member’s contributions:
El: Great at coding.
Claudia: Works well with the robot.
Selin: Good at presenting.
Zoey: Always accomplishes the given tasks.
Anhui: Wonderful artist.
Ella: Team Captain, good at writing
Eva: Great at project research.
Patty: Good at creating the project model.
Dot Dot Dot FLL 4212: The Red Team
During the 2022 season, Dot Dot Dot found a solution to solar panel chemicals, learned how to pseudocode and code using LEGO SPIKE. They designed a new solar panel that uses safer, less toxic chemicals. In addition, the red team coded a robot to help people watch TV, make toys and more. Some of our favorite core values activities were when we had to finish each other’s drawings and play the hula hoop game. Overall, the 2022 season had a positive effect for us, and the projects we worked on taught us problem solving and communication skills.
Our favorite FLL moments were when the code worked, when we won a core values award at the competition, and, when we had fun!
Fun facts about our team: We named our robot “Fred” because Fred consists of Red, which is our team color and F for FLL.
Our team worked well together. Here are some highlights of each team member’s contributions:
Ruoxi: Documenter
Rheya: Team Captain
Srinika: Great with tech
Jing Yi: Great with tech
McKenna: Very enthusiastic
Mira: Vice Team Captain
Minnoli: Good coder
Vania: Good coder
Everyone was a great teammate. They were all kind, smart, and awesome.
The Green Gears FLL 18137: The Green Team
During the 2022 season, The Green Gears found a solution to the increasing amount of lithium ion battery usage, learned how to pseudocode and code using LEGO SPIKE. They designed a billboard that displays a very simple phrase to anybody on the road, and if stuck in traffic, they can read the mini informational excerpts. In addition, the green team coded a robot to do all the different missions separately, and go back to the robot base, as well as move to the other side of the field to complete the other missions. We quickly and diligently completed different missions with attachments on hand to save time, and rack up more points. Some of our favorite core values activities were the hula hoop team activity and the pass-draw game with the team!. Overall, the 2022 season had a large and positive effect for us, and the projects we worked on taught us problem solving and communication skills.
Our favorite FLL moments were when we figured out what was wrong with a mission or got it to work, customizing our billboard, making innovative attachments for Big Bob ( our robot ), and having fun while doing so!
Fun facts about our team:
We all love animals!
Some of us have done FLL before, and for most it was their first year!
We all worked on everything as opposed to assigning jobs to each member!
We all love Dunkin Donuts!
Our team worked well together. Here are some highlights of each team member’s contributions:
Anisha: Team Captain, made sure everyone was on task, worked on both missions and robot!
Meera: Created innovative methods of completing missions, FaceTimed during FLL so she would not miss anything when she was sick, worked on both missions and robot!
Saanvi: Helped make our billboard look beautiful, discovered the measuring app which helped us figure out measurements of the robot field faster, worked on both missions and project ( but preferred the missions! )
Srushti: created the “Grippy Grabber” which inspired some of our attachments and helped us grab far away energy units and pieces on the board, helped discover issues with the code, worked on both missions and project ( but preferred the missions! )
Audrey: Created the names “Big Bob” and “Mini Jimmy” for our robots, helped tape the billboard and project board, worked on mostly the project and our drawings, but also a little bit of the robot.
Olivia: Also helped create the robot names, went out of her comfort zone of speaking in front of other teams, helped the team drawings, worked on mostly the project, but also a little bit of the robot.
Maria: Kept the team hopeful and calm, reassured everyone, made sure everything had a logical reasoning behind it, worked on both missions and the project.
Jeeya: Helped with the research portion of the project, very cooperative and helped where help was due, worked through robot bugs with other teammates, worked on both missions and the project.
The Pittsburgh Purploids FLL 33303: The Purple Team
During the 2022 season, The Pittsburgh Purploids found a solution to save birds from being killed by wind turbines, learned how to pseudocode and code using LEGO SPIKE. One of our favorite core values activities included making the letter “M” for the word “TEAM” with compliments written on post-it notes. Overall, the 2022 season had an amazing effect for us, and the projects we worked on taught us problem solving and communication skills.
One of our favorite FLL moments was when we did the presentation for the judges at the competition.
Fun fact about our team: 2 people go to the same school
Our team worked well together. Here are some highlights of each team member’s contributions:
Sydney: Loved being the team captain and working on the project. At first it was super hard, but when everybody realized that there was a competition it got easier and she made some friends.
Kiaan: best with coding
Akhil: worked on coding and was good with technology
Shawn: a little but of research but also coded
Ethan: worked on research on our project
Risa: worked on research on our project
Kitty: worked on the building of the prototype of the wind turbine and “The Stop Box” as well as the poster.
Marie: worked on the border of the poster and also did research.