Since establishing a FIRST LEGO League program several years ago, interest in joining the team — the Duke Decoders — has grown each year.  

This season, the construction of the team necessitated splitting the students into two squads: Duke Decoders red and white. Plus, the teams featured some students in 5th grade, a change from previous teams that have typically fielded only 6th-8th grade students.  

“We’ve had students eagerly tell us that they want to join lego league all year,” said Michelle Stowell, who coaches the team, along with Brian Stowell.  

“Because they are younger and starting in 5th grade, we get to have them for four years. To see them grow over the next few years will be really cool.”  

FIRST LEGO League, a STEM-oriented competition involving legos, robotics, coding, and critical thinking, is judged based on four components: robot game, robot design, core values, and innovation project.  

Duquesne City’s two teams competed in the Southwest PA First LEGO League Grand Championship at Aliquippa High School on December 13. While neither of the teams advanced to the state championships — as they did last year — Mrs. Stowell was proud of the students’ efforts.  

“Both teams scored the highest they have all season in the robot game. At the beginning of November we went to Upper St. Clair for a competitive scrimmage. There were like 23 teams there and we ranked in the top seven,” said Mrs. Stowell.  

“But since then, our one team doubled their score at regionals and our other team got like 50 above their score. Those little hurdles are huge accomplishments for them.”  

Each season, the theme for FIRST LEGO League changes. This season, the theme was ‘Unearthed’, tasking students with developing solutions to help archaeologists. To prepare for this theme, students traveled to the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village, a live dig site in Avella, PA.  

From the experience, students learned that archaeologists often struggle to find proper footwear, having to consider the balance between wearing a shoe that gives them support against falling rocks, but doesn’t leave footprints on the natural ground. Archaeologists even sometimes just wear socks wrapped in duct tape.  

As such, the Duke Decoders developed an ‘excavation shoe’ for their innovation project, tearing apart a student’s boot in the process for research to determine exactly what their shoe would need to fit an archaeologist's needs. The red Duke Decoders team got a callback from the judges for their excavation shoe.  

“They tore apart a boot to find out all of the different layers and they created one just for archaeologists,” said Mrs. Stowell. “During callbacks, our students wore socks with duct tape wrapped around them. They showed the judges what they learned. They kind of told the story about what they learned.”