Westminster Seniors Coach Spoede Elementary Students in Robotics Skills

Westminster Christian Academy seniors serving at Spoede Elementary School for Faith in Action, the school’s senior service program, recently spent a Saturday morning coaching Spoede students at Hazelwood East Middle School for the FIRST Robotics Lego League qualifying competition.

This year’s FLL challenge, Trash Trek, has children ages 9 to 16 all around the world exploring the world of trash – from collection to sorting to reuse. Teams include no more than 10 children supervised by two adult coaches. Everyone on the team works together to program a robot to solve a problem and score points during the game.

Spoede students competed in the FLL for the first time this year. A group of Westminster seniors met with the Spoede students each Thursday morning in preparation for the competition. “The Westminster students initially taught the Spoede students to program the EV3 robots, and they [Westminster students] led them all the way through the robotics portion of the First Lego League. The Westminster students were there every week to help them problem solve and work through any issues that came up,” said Kathie Dolan, gifted teacher at Spoede Elementary.

Westminster senior Matthew Rush said that his time mentoring the students on his team by helping them program their robot to accomplish various challenges was an incredible experience. “There are nine kids on our team,” said Rush, “but somewhere around two dozen in the entire group - across all three teams. Our team decided on the name ‘Make a Mark,’ since this year’s game is recycling themed. The kids chose to do their group project on markers.”

The qualifying competition is nothing less than intense, explained Dolan. Teams have exactly two and half minutes to navigate their robot through the mission table. “The Westminster students motivated the younger kids by helping them problem solve through the programming phase of the competition,” she said. “They kept the Spoede students calm. After each event in the game, the Westminster students would pull their Spoede teams together and go back over the programs to help the kids improve for the next round of competition.”

Mentorship during the competition can be difficult. The pressure and desire to succeed can supersede the more reserved approach of simply encouraging and supporting the younger teams. “It’s easy for mentors to become too crazy and competitive and end up doing all of the programming for the younger students,” said Dolan. “But the Westminster students never acted that way. They let the Spoede kids make decisions and simply supported them and encouraged their ideas. They offered the perfect amount of support, which I thought was very mature.”

For Westminster senior Matthew Rush, the mentorship aspect of his senior service at Spoede Elementary is his favorite part of the program. “It’s awesome to teach kids about something that you’re passionate about,” he said. “I can’t really think of a better fit for my senior service.”

According to Dolan, Spoede’s first experience at the FLL qualifying competition was a successful one, thanks in large part to the Westminster seniors who spent an entire Saturday at the event with their teams. “The Spoede kids could not have had such a fun and successful experience at FLL without the Westminster students,” she said. “Our students look forward to the arrival of the Westminster seniors each week, and they love that they are there!”