The Long Beach fourth grade Learning Activities to Raise Creativity (LARC) Robotics Teams have earned a coveted spot in the International Wonder League Robotics Competition Invitational Round.

The Wonder League Robotics Competition (WLRC) is an international coding and robotics competition for future tech leaders and innovators. Almost 8,000 teams participated in the WLRC competition from 69 countries. Only 12% of teams qualified for the International Invitational Round. Teams participated in four rounds of intensive missions over a five-month period to compete for a chance to earn a spot in the Wonder Workshop sponsored International Invitational Round.

Through a series of story-based missions, the teams developed problem-solving, growth mindset, and creativity skills through coding and programming. The LARC Robotics Teams designed solutions for real-world science and technology challenges by programming their robots.

Congratulations to Mason Bermeo, Jaedyn Diamond, Caylee Donaghy, Arwyn Donofrio, Brody Dowler, Madeline Eckert, Grayson Eichin, Jackson Ferraro, Kiernan Gianfrancesco, Rosalia Heindrichs, Owen Klein, Emma Kohn, Slate Koss, Caroline McCarthy, Kylie McDonnell, Rowan McLaughlin, Jack McNicholas, Hannah Montalbano, Daniel Mooney, Vittoria Mortillaro, Murphey Moser, Cruz Nafte, Riley Pilczak, Truman Rodabaugh, Wolfe Scanio, Laina Sisko, Jayden Torres, Harlen Werner, Jack Wilsusen and Zoey Zeilman.

The Long Beach teams are coached by Long Beach teacher Dr. Caitlin Fuentes King.

Date Added: 5/8/2024

The Microgravity Project is part of Mission 17 of the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program (SSEP). The goal of SSEP is to provide students with an opportunity to participate in America’s Space Program, where they become architects of a project to be conducted in space by astronauts on the International Space Station. As previously announced, the winning team’s proposal was “How Does Microgravity Affect the Germination of Oyster Mushroom Spawns (Pleurotus ostreatus).”

Most recently, the science department collaborated with the Long Beach Director of the Arts and the K-12 Art Departments on the Mission Patch Art and Design Contest. The two winners were third grader Mackenzie Pastuch from Lindell Elementary School and fifth grader Emilia Conneally from West Elementary School.

In June 2023, mission patches will be launched to the ISS, along with the science experiment designed by the sixth-grade students, and the patches will return to Long Beach with embossed certificates. Onboard the ISS, the patches and experiment will fly at an altitude of 260 miles above Earth’s surface. This is 47 times higher than Mt. Everest and will travel 400,000 miles each day!

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education Internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with Nanoracks, LLC, which is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.

Date Added: 4/4/2024