Gotham Ave robotics team innovates hallways for LEGO League competition

The robotics team at Gotham Avenue School in Elmont participated in FIRST Lego League’s 2021 competition despite coronavirus restrictions, engaging in the competition inside the school building at Gotham Avenue rather than at the organization’s event. 

FIRST Lego League’s events aim to teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to children between ages four and 16 through hands-on activities. This year’s FIRST Lego League competition challenged the robotics team at Gotham Avenue School to create a design that increased physical activity at the school, amid a pandemic that has reduced the level of exercise both many students and teachers engage in on a day-to-day basis.

Kathryn Cartwright, the robotics team’s coach, oversaw countless team meetings that, through research and discussion, led to a discovery: that one out of every three children is not taking part in an adequate level of exercise due to the pandemic. To counter this problem, the robotics team decided to innovate the hallways at the Gotham Avenue School, creating socially distanced sensory walks that encourage physical activity.

Members of the school’s robotics team designed vivid shapes and colors using iPads provided by the school district. The student’s designs, printed on the school’s Cricut machine, were then placed by team members attending school in person throughout the hallways at the school.

Robert Cavaliere, assistant principal at Gotham Avenue School, commended the robotics team’s ingenuity and concern for an issue that he said has affected the student body throughout this school year. “During this unprecedented year, the robotics team still came together to come up with a solution to a problem that has been directly affecting the students at their school,” Cavaliere said.

“Now, if you walk around Gotham Avenue, you will see students from kindergarten to sixth grade jumping and getting in exercise whenever they are in the hallway!”