The Skyrockets team poses with their trophy and medals after winning the Innovative Solutions award at a state FIRST LEGO League competition. Presentation captain Jessa Usery holds the trophy in front. Behind her, from left, are team mascot Joshua Browning, multimedia captain Chloe Smith, buildmaster Luke Durham, programming-meister James Norris, team captain Johnathon Browning and lead teacher coach Pam Fowler. Behind the team stands head engineering coach Jimmy Norris. The team hopes to earn an entry to the global competition in San Jose, California, in June. 

It reads like the plot of a movie. Five kids use their individual strengths to work as a team and solve a complicated problem in space.

There’s drama and action. There’s even a scene in which one team member has doubts, but the team pulls it off and scores a gold trophy.

Perhaps the best part, is that it isn’t a movie. The Skyrockets, led by Tanner Elementary School teacher Pam Fowler and team engineering coach Jimmy Norris, are very much a real group.

On March 2, they won first place in the Alabama FIRST LEGO League State Championship’s Innovative Solution category for finding a way to combat the damage caused by debris hitting spacecraft.

“Our solution was a robot that fixed the spacecraft,”said James Norris, the team’s “programming-meister.”

As part of the team’s presentation, they built a small prototype robot that could carry spray foam on its back and move along the outside of a spacecraft. In theory, it would be one of several, each controlled remotely, that would temporarily fix holes by spraying them with foam.

This would give astronauts time to suit up to permanently fix the solution.

“We thought about using suction cups on the wheels, but then we realized it won’t work in space because it’s all a vacuum,” said Chloe Smith, the team’s multimedia captain. “So, we used duct tape.”

In the presentation, the team used cookies to symbolize the holes in a spacecraft and a can of whipped cream for their spray foam.

The team not only had to present their solution to a problem but also participate in two other competitions. The first was a presentation on core values, while the second was a robot table for which the team had to design and build a robot that performed certain tasks to earn points.

Jessa Usery, the team’s presentation captain, said they scored as many as 90 points in practice but forgot to account for a change in lighting that affected the robot’s sensors.

As a result, James Norris had to reprogram the robot. When all was said and done, the team scored about half what they had managed in practice.

Usery admitted she had her doubts at the end of the state competition. Even after they were announced as the winners of the Innovative Solution trophy, she wasn’t sure what it meant.

“I looked it up when I got home and sent everybody an email that was like, ‘We’re going to California!” Usery said.

Unfortunately, the trip isn’t locked down yet. While the team is eager for it, the reality is they have earned a nomination to write an essay for the possibility to be one of 20 teams from across the world that travel to San Jose, California, for the 2019 INTO ORBIT Global Innovation Award held June 30 through July 2.

Not that this has phased Usery. Even after she’s reminded of the hoops left to jump through, she maintains her confidence.

“We are going to California.”

Start of the Skyrockets

The Skyrockets began as a six-member team in the FLL junior division. They met at the Limestone County Career Technical Center as part of the county’s gifted program. Even at a younger age, the team managed to land a trip to Houston, Texas, for a competition where they won the Terrific Thinkers Award.

Fowler eventually arranged for the team to meet in her classroom at Tanner. They now meet once during the school week and again on Saturdays. Because the meetings generally last two hours and can include a 30-minute drive to and from, parents and siblings hang around the classroom while the kids and coaches get to work.

There are five main members from five different schools. Usery attends Elkmont, James Norris attends East Limestone, team captain Johnathan Browning goes to Ardmore, buildmaster Luke Durham is a student at Clements, and Smith spends her school days at West Limestone.

Joshua Browning, who isn’t quite old enough to join the team, travels from Johnson Elementary to serve as the team’s ambassador and mascot. He even has his own lab coat and received a commendation right along with the team when they showed off their winning presentation at the March 12 meeting of the Limestone County Board of Education.

The Skyrockets’ goal is to continue promoting and enjoying robotics. Fowler said she’d love to see more teachers and kids interested. The team uses STEM skills on a regular basis and — when they’re old enough — can use those skills as part of a FIRST Robotics high school team.