St. Peter Indian Mission School takes 2nd place in robotics competition, heads to State Championship
Emma Hughes
Gila River Indian News
In a proud moment for the students of St. Peter Indian Mission School, their robotics class secured second place at the FIRST Lego League (FLL) Qualifier, and advance to the state championship to be held on Jan. 18, at Arizona State University (ASU).
The FLL qualifier event was held at Skyline Gila River on Dec. 14, bringing together teams from across the Community and surrounding areas all eager to showcase their ingenuity and engineering prowess.
The team, named ‘The Coconut Crabs,’ is comprised of 15 students from St. Peter Indian Mission School in grades 5-8. They worked together to program robots and complete timed missions. They will be the only Native American team competing in the state championship and representing the Gila River Indian Community.
Fifth grader Benjamin Thomas, helped push the team to their win. “I was shy since we first got up there, I was shaking. I just stopped and then started doing the right things that I can, doing my best,” said Thomas.
“He was the one that took us over the top. If it wasn’t for Ben, then we’d probably be like third or fourth place,” said JoEllen Kinnamon, the team’s teacher. Thomas partnered with teammate Brenton Miles, eighth grade, to complete the missions.
“It was fun building the robots and the missions, and the coding was really great too,” said Miles. “The challenges are getting the right measurements to get it to work and sometimes the wires are mixed up so it’ll be in different ones.”
Mikayla Lewis, eighth grade, shared that she didn’t know what to expect when she first began robotics, “I was just wanting to try something out but I got more into it. I started to like it and like all my teammates, working with them was fun. We had our disagreements and our agreements but overall we’re a good team and I like robotics.”
While earning second place was an incredible achievement, what also set the team apart was their innovative project: an underwater robot designed to study and preserve the deep ocean ecosystem and habitats. The innovation garnered widespread acclaim from judges and fellow competitors.
Equipped with a camera, the underwater robot can navigate deep underwater conditions, collect data on marine life, and monitor environmental changes.
Along with the project presentation, the students kept a record of their coding books and shared them with the judges, who then requested to keep the copies as examples because it wasn’t anything they had seen before. “I think that was a nice compliment,” said Kinnamon.
The team also received an award for their public speaking abilities.
Mia Pico, eighth grade, said it was her first time competing. “I really liked it. I didn’t work on robots but I had to talk to the judges and I was like the main speaker. I don’t really like to talk so it really brought up the confidence in me,” said Pico.
As the St. Peter Indian Mission School robotics class celebrates their hard-earned victory, their accomplishment serves as a reminder of the power of innovation and the bright future of STEM education. For these young engineers, the journey is far from over—it’s only just beginning as they head to state championship.