The Unicorn Girls robotics team from Vogt Elementary at their St. Louis Expo
Over the past few years, I have coached both First Lego League and First Lego League Jr. teams at Vogt Elementary. The older FLL team has always been called the Viper Bots. The younger team has changed its name over time: First they were the Sci Girls, then the LadyBots. This year they became the Unicorn Girls.
Well, we ended up having so many interested 1st-3rd grade girls that we had to add a second Jr. FLL team: the Unimermaids. It was quite an experience coaching these two teams, along with co-coaches Yoli and Heather Roberts, and our middle school helper, Ludi.
Jadzia spells a word at the Post-Dispatch spelling bee finals.
Editor’s note: After winning the Ferguson-Florissant district-wide spelling bee for the second straight year, Jadzia reached the finals of the 2017 Post-Dispatch Spelling Bee. Here’s what she had to say about it.
Winning my school bee wasn’t too hard because there were only five contestants! My real challenge started with the district bee. Although not required to move on to the Post-Dispatch bee, it puts in a good bit of practice for me. After a bit of challenge from another student, I won the district bee for my second time in a row.
After that came the regional semifinals, a written bee. I successfully managed to spell 19/20 (or 24/25) out of the words and move on to the finals.
I was very nervous about getting so far, but the fact that I was there and that I had a chance to move on was quite astounding! I did my best. I had studied lists of words that were used for the first several rounds, but beginning with the fifth round, the words were taken from a giant dictionary and the bee got increasingly difficult. I managed to survive to the 6th round, before losing on the word “dromond.”
It was a great experience and I hope to be back in 2018!
As a member of Vogt Elementary’s chess club, Jadzia has had opportunities to be featured in stories about the “Your Move” chess program in the Ferguson-Florissant School District. Here are a couple of her recent appearances:
Jadzia shows off our robot at the Missouri State Capitol.
On March 3, Jadzia and her Viper Bots teammates joined the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri for a STEM expo at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City.
This year, our elementary school introduced a new Girl Scouts robotics team.
I was asked if I might like to help out. I like programming and Legos, so I thought it sounded like it could be fun. I didn’t realize I would end up being the team’s coach. Before long I was receiving boxes from Lego in the mail.
Mad Science at the Prairie Commons County Library.
This summer our kids had more science and library activities than ever before.
In June, Vogt Elementary held a weeklong “Scary Science” camp at the school. Each day there was a scary theme, like making a mummy or eating bugs. The girls were surprisingly thrilled to be eating crickets, insisting that I try one. “They’re good, they’re really good!” they both kept exclaiming.
