Teacher awarded best coach at European Lego Championship
A LOCAL national school teacher was awarded the best coach award at the European Open Lego Championship in Norway last month.
“It was an incredible experience,” said Seán Smyth, sixth class teacher at Scoil Treasa, Firhouse.
A team from Seán’s class, GPS (Girls Play Sport), who won the FIRST LEGO League All-Ireland final in Santry in March, were representing Ireland at the European Championships, held in Bodo, Norway.
The team members’ names are Kayleigh O’Brien, Tara McMahon, Ava O’Dwyer, Molly Campbell, Caitlin Wylie and Hollyann Farrelly.
Seán was nominated by the girls on his team and by the other coaches for the award which was given to the coach that encompasses the values of the First Lego League.
While he was very happy to receive the award, Seán was keen to emphasise that he wouldn’t have been there without the girls.
He was also anxious to highlight how well the girls did in Norway.
“The team did very well, the judges gave positive feedback.
“Considering their age and that they only started in January, they did incredibly well representing the school and the country,” said Seán.
Seán, along with the girls, and parents of the girls, were in Bodo from Monday, May 13 to Friday May 17.
The girls took part in the opening ceremony and on Wednesday there was the judging session.
“The girls presented to 23 judges which was a big thing.
“GPS were one of the first teams up, so it was like a calibrating session, which was an insane achievement,” said Seán.
During the competition team GPS took part in three robot games and had two and a half minutes to show off the challenges that they had coded.
The competition was a fantastic experience for the girls on the team too.
“They met with other teams from Taiwan, the UAE, Australia, they met with other teams and heard about other projects,” said Seán.
The Scoil Treasa teacher reflected on the enormity of the girls’ achievement.
“It just put into perspective, the achievements, at the highest level competing, it highlights how incredible it was for the girls to be there,” said Seán Other teams competing in Norway began their projects in August and the girls from Scoil Treasa also had no coding experience.
Due to the expense of such a trip, fundraising allowed the Irish team to travel to Norway.
“There was fundraising through the I donate community and we also got sponsorship from companies including AWS, Creative Hut, IET, DCU, Firhouse Carmel, South Dublin County Council, UL, Vaugh Tec, MicroPro, Knocklyon Lodge and Farrelly Industry Supplies,” said Seán.
“The sixth class teacher was also keen to highlight the support he received from the parents of the girls.
“I got a lot of support from the parents, even to get them [the girls] involved,” said Seán.
For their Lego project the problem that the girls identified was that not enough girls their own age are playing sport and to solve this problem they designed their own website.
