Congratulations to the Hockabuilders, Designer Daisies, and Daisies of the Future who were three of the 68 teams who won spots at the North Texas Regional Championship held on January 25. There were almost 500 teams competing for those 68 spots this year!

The Hockabuilders (Anya Ahuja, Yanet Bisrat, Ai-Vy Ho, Anisha Puri, Stella Wrubel) had an awesome day. They finished in 19th place in game; their energy and spirit was loud and proud during all parts of the competition. The Daisies of the Future (Sanika Agarwalla, Sena Asom, Angelina Dong, Christina Dong, Maddy Oyakawa) won the Project Presentation award for their lead pipe detector. This award recognizes a team that effectively communicates the problem they have identified and their proposed solution to both the judges and other potential supporters. They also finished 9th place overall in game. The Designer Daisies (Georgia Fuller, Grey Golman, Shifa Irfan, Tarini Gupta, Ashna Tambe) won the Core Values Gracious Professionalism award. This award recognizes a team whose members show each other and other teams respect at all times. They recognize that both friendly competition and mutual gain are possible, throughout the competition. They also won a Global Innovation Nomination. The Global Innovation Award showcases the real-world, innovative solutions created by FIRST LEGO League teams from around the world as part of their annually themed Challenge. There are approximately 100 of these nominations given in the world. The Designer Daisies will submit a proposal for their Innovative Parking Lot app and, if chosen as one of the 20 semi-finalists, will travel to Florida to present their project.

We would like to thank Mr. DeOliveira, Dr. Fishel, and Dr. Bartlett for their sage advice and time throughout the season. We would also like to thank Ms. Thomsen, Mrs. Dies, Mrs. Cagle, and Dr. Coleman for their constant support and for cheering us on at the competition. Thanks in particular to sponsor Laura Baker for the many inside and outside of school hours she has put into supporting our teams and for Ms. Stimpson’s support during electives. We are so proud of these girls. They put 100% effort into this season!