IN Hampton Spring 2016 | Page 14

INEVENTS ALPHA SCHOOL HOSTS FIRST LEGO LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP Providence Heights Alpha School, in conjunction with LaRoche College, hosted the FIRST LEGO League Championship this year on Jan. 9. The Providence Heights Alpha School varsity “Alphabots” team finished in first place in project presentations and ninth place in the table competition. The junior varsity Alphabots team placed second in Core Values Inspiration and 21st in table competition. The Alphabots varsity team, composed of children in grades 7 and 8, and the Alphabots JV, with children in grades 4 through 6, started working on their robot design and program at the beginning of this school year under the guidance of Maria Yamanaka, who teaches robotics at Alpha School under a partnership with the GreenE Academy. The teams’ robots solved several challenging missions related to this year’s “Trash Trek” FLL theme, including saving aquatic life from threatening plastic bags, composting, making sound purchasing decisions, promoting green jobs, demolishing old buildings while salvaging their valuable content and transporting discarded materials. The varsity team’s project focused on the proper disposal of HHWs, or hazardous household wastes. Their creation of a storage system for products such as light bulbs, batteries and aerosol cans, combined with an easy-to-use app they designed, gave them a leg up over their competition. The Alphabots participated in several recycling events as a way to test-drive their app’s usability as well as to gather data to make the app more efficient. For more information on Providence Heights Alpha School and the robotics program, visit AlphaSchool.org. PHOTOS BY PRIMETIME SHOTS 12 724.942.0940 TO ADVERTISE | Hampton