Wasilla Lake Christian competes in FIRST Lego League contest

WASILLA — After participating in the Alaska State Lego League competition in January, two teams of fourth-grade students from Wasilla Lake Christian School won the opportunity to compete in the Global Innovations Award event.

The FIRST Lego League contest included four parts: robot game, robotics design, core values and project. Part of the project is to come up with an innovative solution the issues involved in the year’s theme. This year the theme “Senior Solutions” focused on problems the senior population faces as they age.

The school’s Arctic Elders team won the Innovative Solutions Award for the state of Alaska, said Wasilla Lake Christian School principal Becky Stringer.

Called the DOG P.A.T., the team designed a portable assistance dog-training device.

Many seniors are able to maintain their independence with the help and companionship of an assistance dog. Trainers have a difficult time keeping up with training needs, partially due to the need for the owners to bring dogs to training centers. The DOG P.A.T. greatly improves a trainer’s efficiency by allowing the trainer to do much of the training in the owners’ homes.

Stringer said the team’s hope is that with its invention, more assistance dogs will be made available to help seniors live a more independent life.

She said the team had help creating a prototype of its design from one of the student’s grandfathers.

Dogs and trainers from AK Assistance Dogs tested — and loved — the DOG P.A.T. prototype, Stringer said.

For more information, visit firstlegoleague.org.