Wonder League Robotics Competition  |  Stories  |  

Announcing the Winners of the 2016–17 Wonder League Robotics Competition!

Mar 21, 2017

We’ve been blown away this year by the ingenuity, teamwork, and most of all grit in the 2nd annual Wonder League Robotics Competition! This year we went global — with 5000 teams hailing from all over the world, and we are SO excited to announce this year’s winners! The grand prize winners will each receive a $5,000 STEM grant and a Dash for every member to take home!

The Pink Eagles Win 1st Place Worldwide in Age Bracket 9-12!

Congrats to Jaley, Olivia, Sidney, Camryn, and Amber!

This all-girls team from Hartland, Michigan, came from a school that didn’t offer a robotics club. To remedy the situation, Frank and Melinda Tappen took matters into their own hands and started The Mentors Robot Shop, serving children in the community with a variety of after-school robotics programs. This, year they started a Wonder League Robotics Competition team for their daughter and her friends!

Meet the team:

Check out their finalist mission (Wonder code yiya) and scientific journal.

These five 7th graders — Jaley, Olivia, Sidney, Camryn, and Amber — actually used Scratch to simulate their programming before testing with their prototype. They broke down the main challenge into three parts — check out how their code illustrates their logic beautifully. They articulated the three different cases of the challenge through these branches in Wonder. And their super-mechanically-creative contraption helped them take first place. Congrats to the Pink Eagles for a job well done!

Team X-Plode Wins 1st place Worldwide in Age Bracket 6-8!

Huge congrats to Siri Pratapa and Vishak Rohin Kumar, two 6-year-olds from Bangalore, India!

Meet their team:

Check out their finalist mission (Wonder code hx2b) and scientific journal.

These bright youngsters went above and beyond what was asked of them. Not only did they solve the challenge, but they created a more creative contraption, which led to more efficient code and an even more elegant solution. We were impressed by their thorough video journal, where they described in detail their goals, process, and iterations. Talk about failing forward!

Runners-up for Age Bracket 9-12:

2nd Place goes to the Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies from Gallimore Elementary in Canton, Michigan!

Michigan showed strong in this year’s competition. Congrats to Keshav, Jacob, Jack, and Noah! Check out their team intro, finalist solution (Wonder code rmxi), and science journal.

3rd place goes to Norman the Narwhal from California!

Alia was the one and only powerhouse behind this team. Check out her team introfinalist solution (Wonder code tanv), and science journal.

4th place goes to Nordic Red Squirrels or Something Else From Sweden!

Nina, Tyra, Lilly, Elin, and Ida are a dynamite bunch who go to Internationella Engelska Skolan in Lund, Sweden! Watch for the fun stop-motion video in their team introfinalist solution (Wonder code rf3r), and science journal.

5th place goes to the Sis Squad from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida!

Morgan and Lily Gavazzi are a dynamic duo of sisters who go to Ocean Palms Elementary! We heard that this team made quite the comeback after some hard nights working on the first round challenges. Way to show perseverance and growth mindset! Check out their team introfinalist solution (Wonder code paho), and science journal.

The runners-up will receive a Dash for every member to take home.

Runners-up for Age Bracket 6–8:

2nd place goes to Robot Ninja Helpers from Georgia!

Camille and Drew used the engineering design process, and even went on a field trip to Lowe’s find the perfect parts for their contraption! Check out their team introfinalist solution (Wonder code pxwt), and science journal.

3rd place goes to the Programming Princesses from McAllen, Texas!

Siena and Ena from Dr. Pablo Perez Elementary thought of a very unexpected solution! Check out their team introfinalist solution (Wonder code 9u92), and science journal!

4th place goes to What’s Up Bot? from Edmond, Oklahoma!

Campbell, Eli, Marlee, and Beau from Grove Valley Elementary thought deeply about the design components of their contraption. Check out their team introfinalist solution (Wonder code fjvx), and science journal!

5th place goes to STA Tomcats from San Francisco, CA!

Secret agents Amelia, Joseph, Justin , and Andrew from St. Thomas the Apostle School completed their missions with flair. Check out their team introfinalist solution (Wonder code q5b3), and science journal!

The runners-up will receive a Dash for every member to take home.

Our Grading Process

Our team spent many hours carefully judging the finalist solutions using the criteria outlined in our challenge documents. Our CTO, VP of Product Design, and VP of Software Development then ranked the top 5 teams in each age bracket. Every team did an amazing job, and we were blown away by the creativity and heart that went into all of your work. Coaches, teachers, parents, and team members should all be very proud! Your scores and peer review comments will be sent out shortly. Stay tuned, we will be announcing honorable mentions very soon!