John Wollaston Anglican Community School students are set to represent Australia at an international robotics championship in the USA.
Seven innovative students have earned themselves a place at the 2025 FIRST® Lego League World Championships in Houston, Texas, in April this year.
The John Wollaston team – made up of Year 12 student Cheria, and Year 10 students Oviya, Alexis, Charles, Tom, Brandon and Mulder – were overall winners at the FIRST® Lego League National Championship at Curtin University in December, 2024. They will now head to Houston as the only team to represent Australia in the 2025 World Championships.
With approximately 50,000 attendees from more than 80 countries, the FIRST® Lego League (FLL) World Championship, is an international youth robotics competition and an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The championships are part of the international For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST®) movement.
Teams engage in research, problem-solving, coding and engineering as they build and program a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of a robot game.
Student, Cheria LeVaillant (Year 12), said the Lego league is so much more than just robotics and LEGO. “The league is a fantastic opportunity to express yourself and to learn new things in a safe, fun place, with others who are just as curious and creative as you are. It allows you to challenge yourself, persevere, turn your ideas into reality, work with others and continuously improve with each competition,” she said.
STEM teachers, Mrs Chrisna LeVaillant and Mr Stephen Fox, said they are so proud of the students’ dedication, with many hours spent team building, robot-building, coding and researching their projects.
Mr Fox said, “I’d like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to our Lego Robotics team, The Narwhals, who have been selected to represent Australia at the FIRST® World Lego Championships in Houston in April. They achieved this feat by demonstrating wonderful core values of teamwork, inclusion and innovation, as well as outstanding planning, design and programming skills.
“At the World Championships they will compete with students across the four domains of Gracious Professionalism, Innovation, Robot design and Robot game. As a community, we wish them every success and support in their endeavours” he said.
Principal, The Reverend Tim Russell, said, “We are incredibly proud of our Science program at John Wollaston. Our students have some wonderful opportunities to engage and learn within our excellent facilities, which are enhanced by industry-leading teaching staff, and supported through a variety of curricular and cocurricular programs.
“Our whole community is behind the First Lego League Team, we congratulate these seven remarkable students, and their dedicated teachers, for an extraordinary effort in making it to the Lego Championships, representing both Australia and John Wollaston Anglican Community School!”
You can support the students as they fundraise for their upcoming adventure through Containers for Change – simply provide the team’s unique member number C11547574 at a refund point when returning your containers.
