Inspirational Donegal girls honoured ahead of representing Ireland in Canada

An inspirational group of five Donegal girls aged 11 to 14 have been honoured with a civic reception ahead of travelling to Canada to represent Ireland. Watch the video for a selection of photos from the civic reception, and read on to find out more about these incredible young women and what they have achieved to date.

The Cully Coders are Zoe McElhinney, Abby McElhinney, Rebecca McElhinney, Sienna Deane and Georgia Green. They are coached by Stephen and Adele McElhinney, with support from Scott McElhinney, Brendon Green and Jennie Deane.

They secured their place in the World Championships earlier this year after being crowned All Ireland champions for the second year in a row. They showed excellent skills in robotics, including coding and construction, innovative thinking, problem solving, while also being judged on values such as sportsmanship.

A civic reception was hosted by Donegal Municipal District, where the Cully Coders were honoured by local representatives and presented with a certificate by outgoing Cathaoirleach of Donegal MD, Cllr Micheál Naughton (FF).

Cllr Naughton outlined the remarkable achievements of the Cully Coders, whose notable display of cups was on display at the event.

“They are now planning to represent Ireland once again in Canada in June of this year. They will compete against 95 other countries and I have no doubt you will represent this area, Donegal and Ireland very well. And I want to wish you all the best for that. I have no doubt you will leave no stone unturned to be as successful as you can.”

Coach Adele McElhinney who is also Mum to two of the team, spoke of her pride in the team, and then outlined what goes into the months of development and preparation and what happens on competition day.

“They have shown so much commitment and dedication and resilience because it didn't always go our way, but they stuck with it,” she said. Maybe they didn't always want to be there every night, but they still came anyway.

“And so thank you for sticking with us and giving it your all. Your hard work is an absolute credit to you for sticking because you won't have other things to do when you're doing your exams and things and you stuck with the team.

“On competition days, they really are just a joy to watch. The other teams just love when the Cully Coders come in because they bring such energy and enthusiasm. And it's the core values, the teamwork, the problem solving, the innovation and the fun.

“It's a true privilege for me to be your coach. And I'm so excited for Canada.”

Adele told those gathered that FIRST LEGO League is the largest STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) competition in the world. FIRST stands for Inspiration and Recognition for Science and Technology.

“There's 54,000 teams that compete every year and that amounts to 670,000 participants across the globe,” said Adele.

Explaining the core elements of the competition, she said: “We have the robot game. When you register, you get this mat (see photos). And in the mat are all the missions. You have to build those missions.

“Every year there's a theme. Last year was the ocean. This year is archaeology.

“Each mission is worth a set number of points. In order to do all these missions, all the teams have to design, build and code a LEGO robot and attachments.”

The missions were demonstrated by the Cully Coders team, using robots controlled by code communicated via Bluetooth.

Adele explained: “On the robot, there's all sorts of sensors and stuff that goes on. I won't get too complicated!

But these guys have all coded that and tested that. As they figure out how they can do all these missions on the board, that means an awful lot of testing. And every change that they make has to be tested. They test every change ten times.

“And they've recorded and documented all of that throughout the year. So when I say resilience, I really mean resilience. It's an awful lot of hard work, dedication and perseverance.”

On competition day, the team has just two minutes and 30 seconds to complete all the missions, so practice, understanding and team-work are absolutely essential.

As well as the competition missions, the team has to work on a problem-solving project based on the theme.

Adele said: “The team has to come up with a problem that archaeologists face. So that means speaking with experts, speaking with archaeologists, doing research, and finding out what are the problems that archaeologists face.

“There's a process. You come up with a problem, you find a solution, you build a prototype, you test it.

“They realised that young people don't really know an awful lot about archaeology or why it's important.”

The team created a series of levels filled with different types of soil.

“Each drawer has a different soil in it,” explained Adele. “And that is replicating the ground.

It gets more gravelly, more hard as you go down. And each drawer, then, has a different time period.

“In each drawer, there are four artefacts buried and they represent that time period.

“Young people can come along and excavate and learn how to be an archaeologist and find the artefact.

“The Cully Coders have taken it to another level. They’ve added a bit of digital learning with it. They have recorded videos about each artefact and they explain in a 30-second video what that can teach us about how people lived long ago.

“So when you find an artefact, you match it to a QR code and you watch their video. There's an awful lot of learning going on.”

Adele thanked Donegal County Council's community archaeologist, Kate Robb for her support.

The Cully Coders also took part in a real-life archaeological dig organised by Queen's University Belfast to gain an understanding of archaeology.

Adele then spoke about the core values element of the competition,

“Throughout the competition, they are going to be judged on their teamwork, on their professionalism, their inclusion, impact, discovery, and fun,” she said.

Participants are encouraged to meet all theother teams and to support each other.

“You're judged on your gracious professionalism, and these guys have it in absolute buckets,” said Adele. “And you know what? All those core values are vital for future STEM careers. So I just can't wait to see what happens.”

Having seen the demonstration by the Cully Coders, councillors and staff from Donegal County Council each spoke in praise of the team, speaking of their awe at how the complex missions were executed so smoothly.

The team and coaches will be putting their problem-solving skills to the test in ensuring that their robot and other constructions reach Canada intact. There has been huge support for these inspirational young women on a GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of their trip to Canada. Anyone who would like to contribute can go to gofundme.com and search Help Cully Coders represent Ireland at Canada International!