JJHS Lego League Team in the top two in New Mexico

By John Earp

This past February 15th, the Lego League Team from Jal Junior High School participated in the First Lego League Challenge and New Mexico State Championship in Albuquerque at Menaul School.

Lego League is a global STEM program that introduces science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to children ages 4-16 through fun, hands-on learning. Participants work in teams to explore a given topic, design, build, and program an autonomous LEGO robot to solve a series of missions.

Coach Johnny Estrada, who heads up the program at Jal Junior High, said he took four teams to the New Mexico State Championship, all of which did exceptionally well. One of Jal’s Lego League Teams did well enough to advance to as an alternate to the national championship, which will be held in June in Daytona Beach, Florida. The team consists of Jesslyn Estrada, Zaine Vega, Aye Belise, and Claire Seifts. Estrada was assisted in coaching the Lego League at Jal Junior High by Adrianna Faulkner and Laura Parsons. Estrada says that as an alternate, they can compete if a higher-seeded team is unable to attend, but he still says he plans on the team going regardless. Jal is one of only two Lego League teams from New Mexico to be able to go to the national competition. “We’re going to try to represent New Mexico in a great and awesome way. There are even going to be teams from around the world there, too,” Estrada said.