This spring, 51 Mt. Eccles Elementary students spent their afternoons building, programming, problem-solving, and discovering the excitement of robotics thanks to a $2,400 grant from the Cordova Community Foundation.
The grant funded new Lego League robotics kits to replace aging and broken equipment, along with the annual FIRST Lego League season registration for students in first through fifth grade. With additional Spike Essential and Prime kits in hand, coach Kristie Beckett was able to leave registration wide open to every student who wanted to participate.
The result was one of the program’s most exciting years yet: 16 first graders joined Lego League for the very first time, representing 59% of the entire first-grade class.
Throughout February and March, each grade met once a week for at least an hour of hands-on STEM learning. Using this year’s FIRST challenge theme, “Unearthed,” students explored archaeology-inspired missions, building robots to complete tasks connected to artifacts, fossils, and excavation challenges. Younger students learned the basics of robotic components—brains, motors, cables, and attachments—while older students advanced into racing robots, programming concepts, and completing game-board missions.
One fourth- or fifth-grade team even surpassed the junior high team’s best score on the challenge board, a milestone that speaks to both student dedication and the strength of early STEM opportunities. By the end of the season, fifth graders had developed the confidence and skills to move into junior high robotics ready to compete.
The program also created valuable cross-age mentorship opportunities, with high school robotics students joining practices to help younger students build and program their robots.
“The students were so sad during the last practice and wished Lego League could go forever,” Kristie shared. “Watching students move from free-building artifacts to creating advanced attachments to achieve points on the game board was a pleasure as we worked through trial-and-error learning along the way.”
Thanks to CCF donors, elementary robotics remains alive and thriving in Cordova, giving local students the tools to explore STEM, teamwork, and creative problem-solving at an early age. These hands-on opportunities are building not only robots, but also confidence, curiosity, and the next generation of innovators in our community.