For Rossman School sixth grader Divya Srihari, success is about more than winning. Not that this First Lego League (FLL) Robotics competitor is a stranger to victory. In November, Srihari’s team, “Out of the Bots,” was one of five teams selected at the FLL St. Louis area regional qualifier to advance to the Eastern Missouri State Regional competition. However, Srihari says it was her team’s receipt of the special award for Gracious Professionalism that was the highlight of the experience.
“I was thrilled to be recognized not just for our performance scores, but for also exemplifying strong character in a competitive setting,” says Srihari, who has been involved in FLL for two years.
Srihari credits Rossman School, an independent, coeducational, preparatory school in Creve Coeur, for nurturing the character development that helped her team win this award. “I believe that Rossman’s fundamental values of kindness, honesty, respect and responsibility, which are instilled in us from Junior Kindergarten through sixth grade, guided me throughout the tournament,” she says.
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An international robotics program for 9 to 14 year olds, FLL is designed to get children excited about technology and teach them valuable employment and life skills. In the organization’s annual robotics challenge, teams are judged, in part, on how well they demonstrate the FLL Core Values: gracious professionalism, friendly competition, teamwork, sharing, and mutual respect.
The three-part competition also requires teams to create and present an innovative solution to a real-life science-related problem and put their custom-built and programmed robots to the test in a series of related challenges. In this year’s Senior Solutions Challenge, Srihari’s team addressed medication safety in senior citizens with their Senior Solutions Project and excelled in the Robot Game with its four-wheeled robot called “Roo.”