This weekend, fifth-graders from Lake Washington School district will compete in a science, technology, engineering and math competition against some of the most innovative and clever young students in the state.

The “First Lego League,” competition pits young problem solvers against each other as they attempt to identify a real-world problem and to develop a comprehensive solution.

The four person team self-entitled “Iron Robots,” team includes Suhasini Prakash, Sarayu Sekaran, Manu Hariganesh and Diya Kowshik first had to identify the real-world problem that needed a solution.

The fifth-graders divided their team into four different project roles including: web development, programming, marketing and project solutions.

Sarayu said the team conducted surveys and interviews with experts before they identified fitness as being a challenge for a lot of people during the pandemic, especially among people with disabilities that inhibit their ability to exercise regularly.

She said part of the solution would be to find a way to motivate people to exercise, provide informational resources on appropriate exercises and routines and to make it accessible to everyone, including those with medical conditions and disabilities.

The solution, the team decided, would be to develop an informational fitness website.

Manu said the website, named “Stay Fit, Live Healthy,” provides information on exercises in the exercise catalogue, including tutorials organized by intensity, as well as channels to connect with exercise experts.

Suhasini said the website is intended to allow individuals of different fitness levels and physical limitations to still access fitness routines that realistically work for them.

This Saturday, April 24, the team will compete in the FLL Challenge State Championship against more than 30 other young teams who, like the Iron Robots, have surpassed the first round of the competition.

Diya said typically the state champions would progress to higher competitions against other teams from out-of-state and even out-of-country, but the pandemic means this year’s competition will not advance past a state championship round.

“We know we worked hard,” said Sekaran “We put this out there and we could make a difference,”.

If you want to visit the Iron Robots’ website visit: https://ir40032.wixsite.com/replay.