Rockwood Students Create Archaeology App for Robotics Competition

Going into this year’s FIRST Lego League (FLL) robotics competition, the three Crestview Middle students on the Golden Falcons team identified an issue they wanted to help resolve.

This year’s FLL theme, “Unearthed,” deals heavily with archaeology. Rohin Jagarlamudi, Anirudh Kuchipudi and Sree Vibha Meka – all Crestview sixth-graders – did not know much about archaeology heading into the season and, after surveying their friends, they found it was a common sentiment.

For their team’s “Innovation” project, they wanted to put their hard work and technical know-how to use in helping solve that problem.

“We decided to make a fun learning app with games and chances to speak with archaeologists,” Jagarlamudi said.

The students created the “Digging the Next Generation” app, which includes archaeology-themed games, challenges, quizzes and competitions with other teams. Users can also connect with real archaeologists to learn directly from them.

Jagarlamudi, Kuchipudi and Meka brainstormed ideas and created games using a development platform, then Jagarlamudi combined the efforts into their new app using the Glide building platform.

“Since the beginning of the season, we’ve learned a lot more about archaeology and come up with ways to help other kids learn, too,” Meka said.

The three students have been a part of the Golden Falcons FLL team since second grade. This year, the team qualified for the Missouri Regional Championship by earning the Chapmion’s Award 2nd place and the Robot Performance Award at a qualifying event in December.

They said they enjoy being involved with robotics because of the technical knowledge required as well as embracing the theme of each season.

Last year, for example, was an underwater theme, and the team made 3D artificial reefs.

“There’s a lot of coding involved, so everyone gets a better understanding of how to code,” Kuchipudi said.

Jagarlamudi said he and his teammates are even considering how they can start an archaeology club at Crestview after their experience this FLL season.

“We’ve all liked robotics because we get to have a lot of fun,” Meka said.