For the Bowmar Builders, this season in the First Lego League required them to spend months working diligently to build their robot while also working on a large-scale project centered on water.

The theme for the 2017-18 season was hydrodynamics and each team had to determine a problem within that area and come up with a way to solve it. The Bowmar Builders decided to tackle the problem of polluted water produced during the creation of disposable plastic water bottles.

Their months of research showed them that the approximate amount of polluted water produced each year just by the water bottles used in Warren County could fill the city pool 26 times.

After researching the problem, the members of the Bowmar Builders set out to solve it by promoting the use of reusable bottles. First, they mapped areas in town where people could freely refill bottles including the Vicksburg National Military Park and the YMCA.

They then came up with the idea of a reusable water bottle dispenser where the bottles come with an augmented reality pet that stays alive based on how much water the owner is drinking.

The team also tested the city water and different brands of bottled water and found that based on the PH levels, the city water was actually better than even the most expensive bottled brands.

“I learned about water, the PH levels and how bad Dasani water is,” team captain Lauren Kilroy said of some of her takeaways from the project.

Along with their water project, the members of the Bowmar Builders, who are in fourth through sixth grade, had to design, build and program a Lego robot that would be able to perform a series of autonomous tasks. The team advanced to the Mississippi state championships where they finished second, narrowly missing a berth in worlds.

Their second place finish was good enough to secure a trip to the Razorback Invitational in Arkansas where they competed against teams from throughout the country. 

“At the end of August, the FIRST Lego League people release the theme and what all the missions are to the whole world all at once so everyone can start on the same date,” said head coach Aaron Byrd. “From there, you hit the ground running and usually in December we have our first competition…They give you a bunch of pieces and you start from scratch. You’ve got motors, controllers, wires and a bunch of Legos. From there they come up with the whole thing. They design it, how does it move and make the different attachments work.”

The team is also judged on the FIRST Lego League’s core values of discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork and fun.