Brian and Allie Martell work on the First Lego League competition board together. Photos: Katie Martell
A local family has an intergenerational commitment to kid-friendly engineering.
For the Martell family, Legos are serious business. “We had to build the field ourselves so that we have a replica we can practice with,” says dad Brian Martell. He’s talking about First Lego League, a robotics program in which kid engineers design and build robots to complete missions and address real-world scenarios. Daughter Allie and her five middle school teammates practice twice weekly at the Martell dining room table.
“I actually was in Lego League when I was a kid, and I loved it,” says Katie Martell, Allie’s mom. “My dad was my coach, and we were the first all-girls team. We were state champions in Minnesota for the 2001–02 school year and made it to nationals,” she says.
Katie’s dad, Joel Stone, still helps with the team, and so does Allie’s uncle, Andy Stone, who sometimes stays after practice to build silly robots just for fun. “Also, my dog Kiki is the team mascot,” Allie says.
Back row, left to right: Coaches Katie Martell, Joel Stone, Brian Martell and Andy Stone. Front row, left to right: Team members Andrew Hoult, Matthew Berrones, Lilly Gagliardi, Rohey Jobe, Allie Martell and Emilie Glaeser.
The Martells are enthusiastic about keeping First Lego League in the family. Brian started the original team at Meadow Ridge Elementary when Allie was in fifth grade, and everyone enjoyed it enough to continue the community team when the group started attending Central Middle School too.
Each competition includes a game element during which robots complete missions against other robots on a field. There’s also an innovation element related to real-world circumstances. Katie remembers her winning team’s theme was Arctic Impact. The 2024–25 school year’s theme was Submerged, so Allie and her team considered how they could explore oceanic activity. They built a machine that converted waves into clean energy. Their team name, Jibe, Tack, Cyberhack, stayed on theme, inspired by sailing and coding terminology.
An additional element of the process is to present the project to judges. “The kids presented it to their classmates in science class, and one of the kids’ parents had a connection with Polaris, so they went and presented it to the engineers there, which was really cool,” Brian says.
“I get excited to present because I get to share my work that I did with the team and share what I’ve learned over the whole Lego League year,” Allie says. “Going into competitions, I think it’s really fun, but at the same time a little nerve-racking because you don’t know if your robot [will] malfunction. But we programmed ours to drive straight, so ours did really well. It’s really fun to get to feel like your program worked out,” she says.
Allie’s teammates are Matthew Berrones, Lilly Gagliardi, Emilie Glaeser, Andrew Hoult and Rohey Jobe. Their coaches are Brian and Katie, with assistant coaches Andy and Joel. The group plans to compete again this school year. Having made it to the state championship stage during the 2024–25 school year among 60 other teams, they’re excited to see what’s next. Maybe nationals? “Hopefully, one day we’ll make it there,” Katie says.
