Two Bell Top Elementary School students won an award in Ozobot’s inaugural Think Like an Engineer contest. Second graders Phoebe Williams and Magdalena Kohler won the Ozobot in Action Award, which was one of five awards selected by the coding company through a K-2 national contest.

Bell Top 2nd grade classes were introduced to Ozobots and the engineering design process in their library classes starting in December. There were three unique engineering challenges for the contest and students worked in teams of two or three students during library class from January to April.

Using the Ozobot K-5 Engineering Kit, they applied the engineering design process to imagine, build, test, and improve their ideas for solving real-world challenges.

“The lessons were a fun and engaging way for us to meet the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum (ESIFC) 2nd grade standard for Design Thinking,” said Bell Top Librarian Felice Devine. “It was also a great way for students to learn about engineering and coding.”

Phoebe and Magdalena won for their beach clean-up design.

Judges wrote: “WOW. We absolutely loved your unicorn and kitty Ozobot designs! What a fun, creative way to solve the problem of too much trash on the beach. Your submission was such a joyful reminder that engineering can be imaginative as well as practical. What stood out immediately was how thoughtfully you brought Ozobot to life in your designs. This award celebrates teams who add extra spark to how Ozobot moves through a solution, and your submission did exactly that. From your creative robot designs to the way you used Ozobot as part of solving the challenge, your work was exciting, inventive, and so fun to watch. We were also especially impressed by how clearly you explained your process and shared how you had to try new things to get your design to work — just like real engineers do. We could see the testing, iteration, and problem-solving behind your final solution, and that is what this competition was all about!”

Congratulations!