On Sunday, November 24, both of our First Lego League robotics teams flew over to Melbourne to compete in the National Championship – South. This event involved 46 teams from South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria and was held at Swinburne University. Both Interfusion and Synergetix along with their coaches arrived shortly before the opening ceremony. Both teams were quietly confident of doing a good job in all of their sessions but noticed very quickly that the standard was a lot higher than at the Regional Championship. Teams were just as enthusiastic, just as organised and the robots were well designed to get high scores.

Synergetix scored some reasonable scores in the Robot Game while Interfusion did really well with their second game scoring a new high of 375 that put them into the Top 5. This was a great effort with everything going right during the game – the elevator mission balanced which is really hard to do and the robot just stayed on the bridge at the end! Both teams went to their judging sessions of Robot Design, Core Values and Research Project where they gave their best efforts in front of the judges.

After some lunch on Glenferrie Road, both teams came back for their final Robot Games. They then packed their pits up and found good seats for the closing ceremony. After some dancing, it was time to announce the awards for the day. The head referee, Jack, who is at every National Championship did make the point that while winning a trophy was cool, all teams that had made it to the Nationals were winners and that the whole journey and the growth that students make by being part of FLL is the real prize. So with that in mind, we were appreciative when Synergetix were announced as the Second Place – Presentation Award for the Research Project component of the competition for their creative presentation that tackled the problem of car parking at the new RAH.

We then headed back to the airport and flew back where parents picked up some very tired but still excited students. Our school has done an amazing job in First Lego League in three short years and has given over 40 students the chance to represent our school with 19 of them getting to compete at the National level.

This past Saturday, both of our school’s First Lego League robotics teams headed for an early start to compete in the SA Regional Championship at Pedare College in Golden Grove in a field of over 30 teams competing for awards in the various categories of Robot Game, Robot Judging, Research Project and Core Values. Our two teams, Interfusion and Synergetix are a blend of rookies and more experienced students but all were keen to continue the school’s tradition of success in this competition that has over 38, 000 teams worldwide.

Both teams looked very smart in their custom printed t-shirts and immediately set up their “pit areas” with their banners, table throws and Core Values posters. It was off to the opening ceremony where all of the teams and their supporters gathered to hear about how the day would run. Throughout the day, both teams would get to compete in three Robot Games where their programmed EV3 robot would attempt to solve as many Lego based missions on this year’s themed competition table within a two-and-a-half-minute time limit. Interfusion had a very good robot design this year and achieved a best score of 275 which placed them in fourth place on the day. Synergetix had three rookie programmers this year and weren’t as successful but still posted a high score of 220 which gave them a final place of 13th out of the 31 teams. The Robot Games are a real highlight as it is the only public aspect of the competition and the whole team cheers on the Robot Technicians as they quickly work under pressure.

Both teams had to present an innovative Research Project where they must present a solution to a problem based on the year’s theme of City Shaper within a 5-minute presentation. Interfusion presented a concept of rooftop gardens for high rise buildings while Synergetix solved the woes of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital car park with a technology-based parking system controlled by a smartphone app. They also had to meet with judges to explain their robot design, mission strategies and show off some of their coding. Both teams used an Engineering Notebook to show documentation of their progress which impressed the judges.

Core Values are an essential part of FLL as it emphasises teamwork, sharing and cooperation with fellow competitors. In this judging session the team is given a task to solve where the judges carefully take note of their approach to decision making and inclusivity. They then have another five minutes to share information about their team. Both teams emphasised their multicultural make up and blend of youth and experience.  All of these sessions are scheduled throughout a very busy day with some breaks built in for eating and spare practice tables were available for teams wanting to make some coding or robot adjustments. There was also time to meet other teams, hand out some team stickers or relax as a large two-team group to play a friendly game of Uno.

After the final Robot Games were wrapped up, the judges needed some time to finalise awards and decide who would be offered one of the eight spots for the National Championship in Melbourne later this month. The teams got everyone going with some impromptu dancing until it was time to announce the winners. Both teams experienced success with Interfusion winning the Programming Award in the Robot Design category and Synergetix won the Team Work Award in the Core Values category. An amazing effort but more news was still to come – both teams were invited to be among the eight teams to compete at the National Championship (South Division) in Melbourne on November 24^th! This was really unexpected as our experienced students had spread themselves across the two teams, so we really thought we were more in a re-building phase after the enormous success of the 2018 Synergetix team. But our students were exemplary all day, showing that any child regardless of background, can shine if given the opportunity.

 

This year, we have been very fortunate to have support from both the Rotary Club of Propect and Teachers Mutual Bank who have connected to our school through their support of a STEM project connecting similar complex, disadvantaged schools through Social Ventures Australia. Rotary helped support our successful Synergetix team to go to the 2018 National Championship and have continued to build their partnership with our school to help develop student leadership. We thank them both for this support – we will be using most of their sponsorship dollars to fund the students most in need in order to make the possible trip to Melbourne a reality. Their support really makes an enormous difference. These students can look at the community robot teams and the wealthy private school teams and know they can compete with the best of them and that they deserve that opportunity.

 

It’s been a while since any news was posted here – but that doesn’t mean anything was happening! Our school, Prospect North Primary has decided to have two lead teams for the 2019/20 City Shaper season, spreading talent and experience.
After much discussion, it was decided that it would be more in line with Core Values to balance talent up. So a new team named Interfusion has been created to sit alongside Synergetix to represent our school and to continue the tradition of success that we have had in the prior two years.
Two former members of Synergetix’s successful National Championship team are taking the lead for Interfusion this season – Jenna and Amy will take their experience and memories of being new to a team and help to bring new members on board and help them navigate the challenges of an FLL season.
Anna, the only remaining member of Synergetix (and H2Flo from 2017) is channeling her considerable drive and experience to bring a young and diverse group of students into the Synergetix legacy, and help them to be the best they can be.
Again, girls are leaders in FLL at our school taking up 10 of the 16 positions in the two teams. Diversity is our strength with eight different cultural backgrounds represented in the two teams. Our goals are the same – to embrace the challenge, do our best, live our school values and have a lot of fun. If we win anything along the way, then that is a bonus.
Once again, we are supported by our partners at the Rotary Club of Prospect, and we would like to acknowledge the support of a new sponsor, Teachers Mutual Bank. Many of our students come from families where money can be tight, and so this support is greatly appreciated and allows us to compete against other schools where finances are not a big issue and participation is taken for granted.
So, keep following us here and on our Instagram accounts – Synergetix is still at the @officialsynergetix and you will see posts going up in the near future at @interfusion_fll . Now readers, you have two teams to support – follow along for what should be a fun ride. After all, it is just under a month to go before our Regional Championship!

Just posting some teaser videos for the upcoming season. Any Synergetix members, future members or alumni care to have a guess at the theme in the comments? I think that there are hints in the soundtrack as well.

And there is a FLL Jr teaser as well which is always closely related to the same theme:

Our team got a boost to our FLL Journey through a start up grant from Google in 2017 designed to encourage schools from disadvantaged backgrounds to get started in First Lego League. This paid for the two teams’ registration, the Hydrodynamics field kit and a new EV3 kit that could be reserved solely for FLL purposes. One of our founding members, Leyla, together with a Splice Cubes member, put together the original video submission in an afternoon. We have been asked by First Australia to acknowledge this help from Google in a 45 second video which was finished today by Anna, Amy and Jenna. We hope that Google continues to support First Australia, as it certainly kick started amazing opportunities for our team members who might not have been able to participate otherwise. So, for your viewing enjoyment, here is the video:

 

The excited team left for Sydney on Friday evening hoping to make our school proud. In the morning, we made their way over to Macquarie University for the opening ceremony. Then after greeting now-Melbourne based Minjung who had just flown in, it was off to present the Research Project. We presented our project on radiation protection for astronauts to the judge who was impressed with our high-level science concepts – we also talked about how we had improved their idea from feedback including a RAAF engineer this week.

After this, the team ran our first robot game that was a score of 50 – not the best but not a disaster either. We went to Core Values judging which is all about teamwork and the team’s strength. In Leyla’s words, “Last year we nailed our session, this year we DRILLED it!” The team thought it went really well and the team explained how we have helped bring FLL to others from helping other schools, to meeting with Rotary to helping to host our school Junior Lego League Expo.

Synergetix then went to Robot Judging with a great judge who was really attentive to our explanations and offered some great feedback along the way. The standard of robots and attachments at this Championship was really high but the second robot game went a bit better with a score of 87. It was then time to relax at the local food court for a bite to eat before heading back to our accommodation.

On Sunday morning, the team had its final Robot Game round. We scored 87 again which could have been higher with a bit more luck – one satellite got stuck and didn’t score and we just missed on another mission. Then it was more time to relax before the closing ceremony where the team was excited to win their first ever Major Trophy by coming first in the Gracious Professionalism category. A huge thanks to Ms Powers for helping the team and the coach for the weekend – and it was amazing that Minjung and her mum could join us after moving to Melbourne the day after the State Championship.

This post is a bit late for our dedicated readers but yes, Synergetix is off to the FLL National Championship in Sydney on December 8 and 9. This is an awesome achievement and the team keeps meeting all of the goals they have set for themselves. We competed at the inaugural South Australian FLL State Championship held at Pedare College at Golden Grove last Saturday, November 24.

Here’s what happened:

Robot Game and Robot Design
The team felt quite confident after scoring 104 in the practice round. But unlike the Regional where we started with our best score that stayed in second place for most of the day, we opened with our lowest round of the day in the first match for real points, a score of 70 in a round where a lot went wrong. This affected the judging session afterwards where team members were still thinking about the negative aspects while being judged. After a team meeting, the strategy was decided to go back to basics and get all of the reliable missions done first and only try the more ambitious ones if time allowed. This led to an improved 97 where only some final seconds panic incurred a couple of touch penalties. However, this score had the team and our technicians feeling like they were back on track and they blitzed the final round with their highest ever score of 122 and were only one slightly off Lander Touchdown attempt from scoring higher. This was good enough to finish in 4th place which was a great result at a State Championship. Seeing Roboroos East and the Krakens with much more advanced robot designs and scores highlight where we can still aim for improvement.

Research Project
After reviewing our Rubric carefully after Regional, the feedback was that our solution needed to be simpler for the average person to understand. Our researchers reworked the script, laminated two blueprint diagrams to visually show the solution and talked through how to ensure that everyone in the team could help explain the research and the problem if the judges asked. Our project presentation went really well, all team members contributed and the judges were really intrigued with the idea of an artificial magnetic field for a spaceship created by interlocking tiles that could ward off dangerous cancer causing radiation.

Core Values
Again, we looked at the Regional rubric for how to improve. The biggest area we could easily improve on was to ensue that all team members spoke up during this session so we planned for everyone to have specific areas of our journey to speak about. It was even arranged for the coach to step put of the way to avoid any “coaching”. The result was a perfect score – the judges loved the various ways we had reached to others from helping rookie teams, running a Junior Lego League Expo, seeking sponsorship to connecting and speaking at Rotary dinners.

Results
This was very nerve wracking. The team felt that they had done very well and had improved in all aspects from the previous year but this was the State Championship where standards are higher. We had to wait until the last trophy of the last category before Synergetix were announced as the winners of the Gracious Professionalism trophy! This was soon followed  by the announcement of teams earning invites to Sydney, and thankfully we didn’t have to wait until last to find out that we were amongst the lucky 8 going on to the next level.

So, Sydney, here we come!

 

Great news for all Synergetix followers! The team competed in the Novar Gardens Regional last Saturday on the 10th November and were amongst the 16 teams to qualify for the State Championship to be held at Pedare College on the 24th of November. Synergetix had a great day, building on the success from H2Flo’s 2017 efforts where the highlight was winning the Mechanical Design trophy in the Robot Design category. This was helped by a thorough Engineering Notebook and explanations about our robot design, mission choices and attachments adaptations. We also achieved a new high score in the actual Robot Game of 101 where 5 missions were successfully achieved – and there was still over 30 seconds left on the clock which surprised our technicians for that match! That score was good enough to be Number 1 on the leaderboard for most of the day until Roboroos East went past that number with 123. Synergetix ended in second place for the day in that category.

Our Research Project presentation tackled the topic of protection from gamma radiation in deep space. The judges really liked the presentation style which was a parody of “Shark Tank” and offered great feedback about how to make a complex topic like this easier to understand for the average person. This advice will help the team to do a better job at State!

Synergetix also set up a great Pit area featuring our new teardrop banner and table throw, courtesy of our great sponsors Rotary Club of Prospect and IPAU IT Solutions. We set up our Core Values posters, had Synergetix stickers to give away and even added some gold balloons and gold star glitter! This was where we met our judges for the Core Values session who heard from most team members about how our teamwork, how we have tackled the season, who we have helped along the way and how we have applied the skills from FLL to other situations. This is always a strength of Synergetix so we were pleased that the judges seemed to be very engaged during their visit.

Our team t-shirts looked great on the day – we were also proud of our other Prospect North teams, FLIT and Lego LUNAR-tics who were all rookies, including the Lego LUNAR-tics coach! She was very proud herself later on as her team won a Robot Innovation and Design trophy and will be joining us at the State Championship.

So, wish us all luck for November 24th!

Welcome to the blog of Synergetix, Prospect North’s official FLL lead team. On this blog, you can meet the team, enjoy some virtual freebies and stay updated on our progress during the FLL season.

In 2017, we competed for the first time as H2Flo – you can check out our story on the Our FLL Journey tab. But we noticed that many of the most successful teams had names that stayed the same for every year rather than just be based on the annual theme, and they built on the success of previous years. So in 2018, the team has adopted the name of Synergetix which will be the permanent name of the lead team here at Prospect North Primary heading into the future. So while we will retain our main team colour of black, there will be new t-shirt designs, this website and other social media contacts and hopefully some sponsorship to help us do our best to achieve the goals we have set for this year. So, have a browse and leave us a comment of support or advice if you want, and keep checking back here for the latest in Synergetix news!