On Sunday, February 4th, The Armory took its Great Minds students to the First Lego League Qualifier event at The High School for Environmental Studies.

We are excited to share that one of our groups received the Breakout Group Award, which recognizes teams with remarkable potential and overall performance. Additionally, one of our teams earned the opportunity to compete at the Semi-Finals! Only 8 of the 21 teams present were given the opportunity.

Each team presented to a panel of judges and shared their solution to a problem they identified in their community. This year’s theme, Masterpiece, challenged each team to solve problems with art and technology. The Great Minds team moving to the semi-finals, The Water Hackers, observed that at their schools, children were not drinking enough water. Their solution was to upgrade the schools water fountains to provide colder water, a filtered system, and a mounted projector to display artwork behind the fountain. They administered a survey to over 100 students and were thrilled to find out that over 90% of students agreed that their improvements would lead to them drinking more water.

The Water Hackers will be attending the semi-finals on March 10th at John Dewey High School. The middle school students of the Armory College Prep will also be attending a qualifier event at Horace Mann School on Sunday, February 25th. We wish them the best of luck!