In May of 2007, Butler County gifted facilitators brought their seventh grade students together for a Lego Mindstorm  Competition. The event was a great success with five teams from five schools participating. The challenge for 2008 was to improve the competition and enhance the overall student experience.
Those challenges were met and mastered last  Friday when students from Augusta, Circle, Douglass, El Dorado and Rose Hill gathered for the second time for what will now be an annual event.
The first year saw each school bring one team. This year the facilitators randomly placed students on teams for the competition. Teammates were not introduced until the morning of the event. Facilitators ended up with nine teams.
Instead of students working before hand to design robots and program them in advance for the challenges, the students worked with new teammates to design the robots that morning. As the students got to know new teammates, the process of learning from their peers and sharing ideas on robotics and programming took center stage.
The team structure was not the only change in the event. The facilitators also added a new challenge.
The facilitators plan one countywide event for each age group each year..
Students spent the morning studying the challenges, programming the robots on their laptops and having a chance to meet and talk to their peers.  The actual challenges came after lunch.
Dorothy Boucher, gifted facilitator in Augusta, and her paraprofessional Kathy Stahlmer coordinated the event again this year.