Lily Short, left to right, Mia Middleton, Dean Shank, Caleb Hill, Isaac Maxson and Logan Scherer work on one of their projects for their Robotics team.

Courtesy photo

Members of the Robotics team are, left to right, Dean Shank, Lily Short, Mia Middleton, Logan Scherer and Caleb Hill, along with Isaac Maxson, in the front.

Courtesy photo

SIDNEY — A team of five young fifth grade engineers from Fairlawn Middle School earned a top spot at the First Inspires Lego Robotics Regional Tournament held at the National Air Force Museum in Dayton.

They, along with five other teams from the Regional Tournament, will advance to District Lego League Tournament alongside the top teams from around the state. The team named “Fairlawn RoJETics: Master Builders” consisted of Mia Middleton, daughter of Seth and Brittany Middleton; Lily Short, daughter of Chris and Tracy Short; Logan Schere, son of Derek and Danielle Scherer; Dean Shank, son of Cody Shank and Randi Shank; Isaac Maxson, son of Liz and Mike Maxson; and Caleb Hill, son of Rick and Wendy Hill.

At the competition teams are required to write code for a small team-built robot in order to complete missions. The team also had to present an innovative project to a panel of judges by providing a prototype, demonstration, and thorough research about a new invention the students created together.

The students are under the advisory of their coach Sonya Phillips. Fairlawn has five middle school Robotics teams and all competed at Regional Tournaments in the area. Fairlawn’s Robotics Club have been funded by the school Board of Education and by Honda of America.