Oshkosh LEGO team advances to state championship in Madison

OSHKOSH ― One of Oshkosh’s kids’ robotics teams is heading to state.

Nine students from ALPs Charter, Tipler, Oakwood and Traeger schools will be traveling to Madison to compete in this year’s FIRST LEGO League Wisconsin Championship Jan. 21.

Competing under the team name "Baksteen Valken," the Oshkosh kids are set to face 25 other robotics teams from across the state for a chance to advance to this April’s FIRST LEGO Championship in Houston.

“This is my fourth, and last, year in FIRST LEGO League and one of the many things I will definitely take with me to high school is working as a team,” said 14-year-old team member Barakat Akinyele of Carl Traeger Middle School.

“Being in FLL allowed me to work, brainstorm and have fun with a group of amazing team members that I became close friends with,” Akinyele added.

Composed of students from fourth to eighth grades, the teams are required to build autonomous LEGO robots that perform a series of missions and challenges.

The FLL squads are also asked to conceptualize a project that provides innovative ways at solving real-world problems or scientific questions.

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This year, Baksteen Valken, which is Dutch for "Brick Falcon," decided to tackle climate control with their project A.R.C.H. — the Archive and Repository for Continuing Humanity.

It’s conceptualized as a monument containing a vault designed to preserve and protect Earth’s languages, knowledge and biodiversity against any possible climate change disasters.

“The ARCH monument will be in a national or state park, [so] above ground is the arch’s structure with our welcome message in many languages and engraved art depicting humanity’s achievements, landscapes and biodiversity,” explained 12-year-old Cora Volkening of ALPs.

Added Tipler’s Emily Kasubaski, 13: “Below ground is the DNA storage vault and digital archive and those can help humans repopulate the species in the event of a global catastrophe or if we need to leave Earth to colonize other planets.”

This season, Baksteen Valken won the Innovation Project Award, placed second in the robot matches and was a runner-up for the Tournament Champion Award while competing at the Janesville regional tournament.

Baksteen Valken also competed at the Waukesha Sectional, winning a Core Values Award and placing third overall for the robot game high score to earn a spot at the FLL Wisconsin Championship.

“I think all kids should join FLL because you are going to meet a lot of new people, learn a lot of stuff, and last, but not least, you can have fun and visit places that you’ve never been to before,” said Aisha Akinyele, 9.

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The two top-ranked teams from the Wisconsin Championship will earn spots at the 2024 FIRST championships in Houston.

Four other top-ranking teams will have options to attend FLL invitationals in New Jersey, California or Massachusetts.

More than 35,000 FLL challenge teams compete globally each year, with Wisconsin accounting for at least 300 of those squads.

“I’ve been coaching from 2012 and it’s one of my favorite things to do because each year has a new, unique topic for us to research, so I get to learn something new every year,” said team coach Amy Hardy.

“Then, it’s also rewarding for me to watch these children grow, learn and mature during their time here because most of them stay on for this experience until they move on to high school,” she added.

This year’s Baksteen Valken team members include Barakat Akinyele, Emily Kasubaski, Caiden Kim, Yui Watanabe, Julian Morris, Cora Volkening, Tyler Ellifson, Aisha Akinyele and Ellen Volkening.

Contact Justin Marville at jmarville@gannett.com.