A team of students from Beehive Science and Technology Academy captured a third-place award in the robot game at the FIRST LEGO League Competition held this past weekend in Houston, Texas. To qualify for Houston competition, Beehive’s team, named Beehive Robotics, took first place in the robot game and won the first-place Champions Award at a competition held Feb. 11 at Weber State University in Ogden.
Thirty-nine countries from around the world competed in Houston. Each team was a regional, state or country champion.
Beehive Science and Technology Academy Principal Hanifi Oguz said, “To put this in perspective, it means that our team was third in the world in this category. This is a huge achievement for our school.”
The competition requires that students build and program LEGO robots designed to complete specific tasks. Forty-seven teams from Utah competed at the Weber State University event, and a total of nine trophies were awarded. Beehive Robotics was one of two teams from Utah to go to Houston for this international event.
Last year, a team from Beehive tied for 20th in the world in the FIRST LEGO League Competition in St. Louis. The Beehive team was the only team from Utah at last year’s competition, which included teams from every state and 40 countries—108 teams in all.
The international event has been held since 1998.
Beehive Science and Technology Academy students on the team in Houston were: Trinity Mauer (9th grade), Asim Kablan (7th grade), Austin Grant (8th grade), Gaireth Castleton (8th grade), Kaden Gordon (8th grade), Moises Molina (8th grade), Sam Gwynn (8th grade) and Zack Nelson (8th grade).
The Beehive Science and Technology Academy Lego League Competition head coach is Annie Drennan and Lorie Mauer is the assistant coach. Drennan and Mauer are parents of Beehive Science and Technology Academy students.
