First place for the team from the 1st Secondary School of Nea Orestiada for a project using natural zeolite
The team from the 1st Orestiada Lower Secondary School, comprising 27 pupils, secured their place in the First LEGO League (FLL) final on 2 March in Thessaloniki, by winning first prize for their overall project – which focused on hydrodynamics – at the qualifying rounds held last Sunday in Xanthi, with many school teams taking part. The First LEGO League, is a global robotics competition aimed at children aged 9 to 16, with the aim of helping them discover and develop a love for science, whilst developing their skills through collaboration, using LEGO bricks as their primary building material.
The team from the 1st Lower Secondary School built a track featuring a town, on which a LEGO robot was tasked with following specific routes, receiving commands from the team of pupils via a computer. One of the projects he also presented was the construction of a system that filtered dirty water, after domestic use, using zeolite, with the aim of reusing it in toilet cisterns to reduce the wastage of drinking water, following research into water availability and usage in developed and developing countries. Furthermore, they wrote a short play to present the ‘greywater’ recycling project, as well as lyrics for two songs, which they performed themselves whilst playing musical instruments.
The pupils, Angelos Delimbeis, Evdokia Dogiamazi, Konstantina Vlasakidou, Aphrodite Ioakeimidi, Ada Baharidou and Vasilis Spandonidis, , speaking to ERT Orestiada, said they were very pleased with the experience of taking part, emphasising that teamwork had taught them to respect different viewpoints and to build successful partnerships, whilst encouraging their fellow pupils to take part in educational programmes. For her part, the programme coordinator, the school’s IT teacher, Stella Keramitsi, emphasised that the pupils were asked to work outside school hours for around two months; they visited the Biological Treatment Plant and the company specialising in zeolite, working as a team. It should be noted that the IT teacher, Dimitris Kefalas, was also in charge of the programme.
Interview – Written by: Dimitra Paraskevopoulou
Photographs: Dimitra Paraskevopoulou
Source: ERT