Montessori pupils take Lego League crown

Wicklow Montessori Primary School will go forward to represent Ireland in the UK First Lego Finals this month after being crowned the 2019 Learnit and Dublin City University League Champions.

A total of 22 teams from Leinster schools competed in the event following four months of preparation, including designing, building and programming their own automated robot using Lego Mindstorms. The teams also developed a research project based on identifying a human physical or social problem faced during long-duration space exploration within the Sun’s solar system and devised solutions to combat this.

Wicklow Montessori Primary School will represent their country on Saturday, February 16, in the University of the West of England, Bristol. The team are Eve Stokes, William O’Riordan, James Dunnes, Benjy Billington, Laura Hammond, Ciarán Walton, Matthew Leonard, JJ Bourke and Maya Hammond.

The First Lego League encourages children to think like scientists and engineers, developing practical solutions to real-world issues. It is an international competition involving students age 11 to 16 from 80 countries. Irish education specialists, Learnit, have introduced the First Lego League to schools in Leinster and Munster in recent years.