Rapid River Robotics team heads to Massachusetts

RAPID RIVER, Mich. (WLUC) – A group of Rapid River fourth and fifth graders took their Lego robot and headed to Massachusetts Wednesday night for a weekend competition.

A police escort led the Rapid River Robotics team out of town as the group hit the road. They had more than an 18-hour drive ahead of them, and fifth grader Terrell Harris had plans.

“What do I have planned for the bus ride? Just kind of like talk to my friends,” Harris said. “I’m going to read a lot. Party, probably.”

The team is heading to Worcester, Massachusetts, where they’ll compete against more than 100 teams from across the world at the WPI First Lego League International Championship.

“I’m not really nervous about that,” Harris said.

The students qualified for the event by doing well in earlier meets.

“This was the first year that we qualified out of our regional event at NMU,” Co-Coach Jake Denkins said. “So, it was a good year for us because we qualified for our state meet and now, we qualified to go out to Boston.”

At the state meet in December, the team placed 7th out of 726 teams in Michigan. Fourth grader Tristen Leadman said he couldn’t believe it.

“I was super excited,” he said. “I teared up a little.”

Denkins said the students build the robot and program different missions. They then have the robot complete the missions during competition. Engineering, problem-solving and teamwork are all skills the students develop while being on the team.

“Everybody gets to work with everybody, and everybody gets to work on a different section every week,” Denkins said.

Leadman said the team had a system for dealing with any conflicts.

“Whenever we would get into disagreement, we would vote democratically,” he said.

Leadman added that the team got along with each other most of the time.

Both Leadman and Harris said they joined the team because they wanted to hang out with their friends.

“And I really like playing with Legos,” Leadman said.

Denkins said the trip isn’t all about work and competition. They planned to stop at Niagara Falls on their way to Massachusetts and spend an afternoon in Boston, exploring history, after the competition is over.

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