SPRINGFIELD – A group of seventh graders in the Springfield area has been building a functioning robot out of Legos, motors, and a sensor since last August. Last Saturday, they put their work to the test for the 2025-26 Intel Oregon FIRST LEGO Challenge Championship Tournament in Hillsboro.
The six children in the Springfield Robotics Club come from neighboring schools, including Pleasant Hill, Kennedy, and charter schools in Cottage Grove. Christy Stone, their coach, said they typically join because their school does not have its own robotics team. They meet after school to design, program, and test their robots’ abilities.
Seventh-grader Madeline Hatfield expressed concerns about working in a shared space where other teams also build robots.
“One time I came and found my entire set completely apart, and some of the pieces completely missing,” Hatfield said. “I was so mad because some of those pieces you only have one of.”
Hatfield explained that the program she helps run uses what the team calls the Viper, but the Legos used for the eyes went missing and have yet to be found. Waffle pieces took their place, and the team name JJaM ‘n WaffLes MM… was born.
Folks on the team partner up to program a run that completes a specific task. Along with the robotic demonstration, the team also had to identify a real-world problem and develop a solution.
There is a theme for the competition every year, and this year’s is “Unearthed.” Previous themes included water, power, and space.
“Each team chose a particular issue relating to archeology, researched that issue, and developed a presentation on how that issue should be addressed. They also designed, built, and programmed a unique robot that achieves missions on the unearthed playing field,” said Bruce Schafer, executive director of Oregon Robotics Tournament & Outreach Program, in a media release.
“This team has designed an app for kids to learn about archeology, and they have a partially working app right now,” Stone said. “They work with an app developer and a prototype professor that teaches at Bushnell, archeologists from the University of Oregon, too. Along the way, they’ll show them their progress, and they’ll give them feedback or things to improve on.”
She explained that during the competition on Saturday, the kids presented the robot run and a five-minute presentation about their project and how they made the decisions they did.
The app they created, Digscovery, lets users scan an item with their camera to learn more about it. Jaren Meacock and the rest of the team provided a demonstration of the app.
“Let’s say, for example, if I scan a spoon, it would give information on how eating utensils were used in ancient China,” Heacock said. “Every time you scan items, you earn waffle coins, and you can spend your waffle coins in the store.”
He said the waffle coins can be used to purchase decorations for a virtual civilization.
Saturday’s competition was from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and open to the public at Liberty High School. It was the 25th annual FIRST LEGO League Challenge Championship. Over 200 teams qualified, but only the top 60 were invited to the championship.
Springfield’s seventh-grade team, JJaM ‘n WaffLes MM…, took home third place in the core values category, marking an end to their season.
