St. Mary LEGO Enthusiasts Head to Regional Competition

Have you ever had to remove fish quickly out of a pond, or beat the clock to move a truck?

For members of ’s FIRST LEGO League team GaliLegos, this is all in a day’s work.

GaliLego is Saint Mary’s first team to participate in the FIRST LEGO League’s regional competition, which will be held Dec. 17 at Lincoln Middle School in Mount Prospect.

The team, comprising eight fourth- and fifth-graders, designed and programmed autonomous LEGO Mindstorms robot sets to complete various tasks in a simulation of how to harvest food and bring it to market quickly and safely. The team has 2.5 minutes to complete all tasks on a themed playing field.

According to FIRST LEGO League’s website, the competition is a “robotics program for 9- to (14) year olds, which is designed to get children excited about science and technology — and teach them valuable employment and life skills.”

On a recent Saturday morning, the GaliLegos met at St. Mary School's STEM laboratory to conduct a practice run and to fine-tune the robot. Teammates cheered as each member stepped up to complete a task, and coaches Saad Yacu and Tony Stencel encouraged team members to find ways to decrease their time.

As part of the competition, the GaliLegos also completed a research project on food safety. The team observed food preparation at in Buffalo Grove and devised ways to bring fresh food safely to consumers.

In the upcoming competition, the team will be judged on how well it works together, its research and solution for food safety, and the timed robot segment. GaliLegos was formed in August, before school started, and the team met twice weekly until the competition.

“I think it’s great that Saint Mary’s has this team,” Yacu said. “It’s another initiative from the school, and it has a great engineering concept for children to learn.”

Yacu also said the GaliLegos have a spare robot, which teaches the children always to have a backup. In addition, the team members kept an online diary of their progress.

“It doesn’t matter to me how we place during the competition,” Yacu said. “To me, we’ve already won. Everyone has achieved so much through this program.”

The students on the GaliLegos team joined for various reasons; some for fun, and others for a way to explore robotic technology.

“The (FIRST LEGO League) program is so fun, and we’re learning a lot from science and technology,” George Yacu said.

Emma Jensen joined the team to be with her friends. “I wanted to hang out and learn about robots, and I hope to encourage my younger sister to do this cool program because it’s so much fun,” she said.

“I thought it was so neat to learn the programs and to hang out with my friends,” John Antony said.

For Alex Stencel, playing with LEGOs has been a lifelong passion. “I decided to use my interest in LEGOs when I heard about this competition,” he said. “I wanted to know people who were doing this program, and it’s been a great time.”

Jack Zadell, a self-described “LEGO master,” said he joined the GaliLegos team because he found out his friends were joining.

“I’ve been building with LEGOs for as long as I can remember,” he said. “I had to join. We’re not all so nerdy on this team, either, and we’re actually pretty cool.”

Students Brandon Adduci, Brian Adkins and Mia Raftrey are also on the GaliLegos team.

“I wanted to be involved with the program because I think it’s great that students can think lineally and learn different strategies,” Stencel said. “I hope we can do this again next year.”