Members of the FIRST LEGO League robotics team Tender Defenders after winning the West Virginia State Championship at Fairmont State University. From left: Elliot Lambert, Thomas Hayes, Hayden Carey, Jaeclyn Kalika, Lilly Pfeifer, Kayley Kalika, Will Bashaw and Evan McCleary dressed as the team’s mascot. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — A group of local students are preparing to head to Arkansas to compete in the FIRST LEGO League Razorback Open Invitational in May at the University of Arkansas.

The team received its invitation after finishing first overall at the FIRST LEGO League State Championship held at Fairmont State University on March 19.

“We won in past years, but I didn’t want it to be the end of all this,” team member Hayden Carey said. “So, winning was kind of relieving for me. Because I get to go and spend more time with this team that has became my family. It’s kind of emotional. I’m just glad to be here.”

The robotics team, named the Tender Defenders, consists of Jackson Middle School students Will Bashaw, Thomas Hayes, Evan McCleary, Kayley Kalika, Lilly Pfeifer, Hayden Carey, Jaelyn Kalika and Elliot Lambert.

“Since the competition, and even a little bit before, it’s been constant tears,”said K.C. Doepker, coach of the Tender Defenders. “Because we really have become a family these last four or five years.”

Tender Defender team members compete in the robot game during the West Virginia State Championship at Fairmont State University. The team finished third in the robot games but first overall. (Photo Provided)

Doepker said this is the first team from West Virginia to receive an invitation to the Razorback Open Invitational.

Competition is judged on four core elements that count for 25% of a team’s overall score. Those elements are the robot game, research, robot design and core values. Three are judged sessions (core values, robot design, and innovation project) and along with the robot game performance, they are all weighted equally to determine the initial group of champion candidates.

Pfeifer said the team will program their robot to run autonomously, meaning they program the robot to move without controls, after reviewing a copy of the board the team receives before the competition to complete the missions they’re required to.

“We program them, and we make lineups on the board,” Pfeifer said. “We play the program, it will come back, and we’ll then play different programs. Our strategy involves having certain attachments doing certain missions. So, in our mission sequences we plan to do the missions together that use the same attachments. That way we don’t have continually go back and switch them out.”

Doepker said the team has two and a half minutes to complete its missions. She said robots aren’t the only aspect of the competition that’s important.

Members of the FIRST LEGO League robotics team Tender Defenders huddle together after winning the West Virginia State Championship at Fairmont State University. (Photo Provided)

“A really big part of FLL is not only the robot but the engineering project,” Doepker said. “Something that I teach them is that innovation doesn’t have to be some crazy brand-new idea. It can be improvements on things that already exist and innovating on that.”

For their innovation project the team decided to build something that could be attached to the wheel of a wheelchair and generate the electricity needed to charge a device. This would allow those with disabilities to charge their devises without using up the battery life of their wheelchairs. The team calls their innovation the “Accessibly Cyclone Charger.”

“This is something you would call a rapid field prototype,” McCleary said. “Just to prove a concept. That it is possible, you can attach this to a wheelchair, that this will generate power.”

Bashaw said the ultimate goal is to win the competition in Arkansas but they will be perfectly happy if they don’t.

“It’s such an honor to even make it there,” Bashaw said. “Because we had to win state to be there in the first place.”

Members of the FIRST LEGO League robotics team Tender Defenders gather around their practice board as they prepare for their next competition in Arkansas. From left: Evan McCleary, Lilly Pfeifer, Kayley Kalika, Will Bashaw, Hayden Carey and Thomas Hayes. Team members not pictured: Jaelyn Kalika and Elliot Lambert. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

The team will be holding some fundraisers to help with expenses and the registration fee of $1,600. On April 18 from 4-8 p.m. the team will be at the Vienna Applebees to talk about about their innovation project, and the benefits of being on a FIRST LEGO League team, and will even use their STEM knowledge to guess people’s birthdays. The team will be at the Emerson Avenue Wendy’s on May 10 from 4-8 p.m. for those who can’t make it to Applebees on April 18.

Doepker said the FIRST LEGO League is more than just robots and trophies.

“To see this team really embrace that, that’s kind of the win for me,” Doepker said. “They do a really good job of living out the core values not only in Lego League but outside in their daily lives, too.”

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com