After qualifying in November for regional competition, the Warren-Walker Middle School G-Bots went home with a fifth-place showing against 60 teams in the Southern California Championship FIRST Lego League Cup on Dec. 4. The theme of this year’s competition was “Body Forward,” which focused on biomedical engineering. There were three parts to the competition: robotics design and performance, a bioengineering presentation and core values (Teamwork). The G-Bots designed and programmed a Lego robot that would perform special missions in 2.5 minutes all by itself. Each team was allowed three tries to complete the missions and the highest score was counted.  For the bioengineering project, the G-Bots researched lower-body prosthetics. They were able to attend a prosthetic workshop for challenged athletes, took a tour of a prosthetic manufacturing facility and observed the challenged athlete triathlon in October. The G-Bots’ presentation consisted of a 2.5-minute presentation on the lower-body prosthetics of past, present and future, and a 2.5-minute rap — with the help of garage band — about a soldier who comes back from war with an amputated limb and who finds a whole new life through the use of prosthetics designed by the G-Bots. Finally, the G-Bots were interviewed as a team about the value of teamwork, what they learned throughout the challenge process, and what it means to exhibit “gracious professionalism.”  Of the 60 competing teams, the G-Bot’s top robot performance score resulted in a three-way tie for fifth place.