The sound of the MC announcing the matches over the background music, a sea of colorful custom T-Shirts, and LEGOs scattered throughout the school: This was the scene of the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Newton Qualifier last Saturday at Newton North High School. The FLL Qualifier, run by Newton’s dual-high-school robotics team, the LigerBots, was back almost in full swing after the pandemic broke the momentum a couple years ago. During this event, LigerBots members from Newton North High School and Newton South High School shared their passion for robotics with elementary and middle school aged students from eighteen teams throughout the state.

Running alongside the Newton FLL Qualifier, the annual LigerBots STEAM Expo was a success for the over one hundred kids attending! The many exhibitors included the Massachusetts National Guard, Green Newton, and Johnson String as well as these high school clubs and teams: NNHS Programming Club, NNHS STEMentors, NSHS Science Team, and NSHS Women in STEM. In addition, the LigerBots hosted eight STEM activities and demonstrations resulting in the making of approximately 100 Binary Bracelets, 100 Balloon Cars, 100 origami double pyramids and tangrams, 50 cups of slime, and 20 Solar ovens — and the awarding of over 100 buttons.

The event ended with an Awards ceremony and a Dance party! Awards in several categories were given out, with the top ones going to the Goofy Gyros (Champion’s Award Winner) from Ashland, Mechanical Madness (Champion’s Award Runner-up) from North Attleboro, Team Arrow from Canton, the Green Gearticks from Lincoln, and the Exploding Bananas from Lexington. We had five teams from Newton, and of these, The Cookie Coders won 2nd place in the Core Values judging and Team Voltage won the Rising All-Star award.

— LigerBots Davis (NNHS Junior) and Charlotte (NSHS Sophomore)