This spring, we wrapped the inaugural season of the Ozobot Code & Conquer Series: Think Like an Engineer, and we could not be more inspired by what students and coaches created.
With entries from classrooms and teams across the country, K–2 students took on real-world engineering challenges using the Ozobot K-5 Engineering Kit, applying the engineering design process to imagine, build, test, improve, and share their ideas. From cleaning up beaches to sorting recyclables and designing shade structures, students showed us what can happen when coding, creativity, and hands-on problem-solving come together.
And wow, did they deliver.
Across every submission, we saw what we hoped this competition would inspire: thoughtful iteration, inventive uses of materials, teamwork, storytelling, and students proudly explaining how their ideas could make the world better.
Today, we’re excited to celebrate the winners of our first-ever Think Like an Engineer Competition.
Grand Prize Winner: Best Overall Design
Team Masterminds, led by Coach Pickard
Our Best Overall Design award recognizes the highest-scoring submission across creativity, engineering design, Ozobot coding integration, and communication.
Team Masterminds stood out across the board.
Their project demonstrated thoughtful problem-solving, strong iteration, and clear communication, all grounded in a real sense of purpose. One judging comment that stuck with us: a student explained their design simply as helping because “he saw there was trash, he wanted to pick it up.” That mindset captured so much of what engineering is all about.
Congratulations, Team Masterminds!
Spotlight Award Winners
Global Impact Award
Team Orca, coached by Coach Bashore
This award celebrates teams whose ideas show how engineering can improve life for people, communities, or the planet.
Team Orca impressed us not only with their environmental thinking, but with how every student contributed to sharing the “why” behind their solutions. Their work reflected empathy, collaboration, and a clear connection between engineering and real-world impact.
Congratulations, Team Orca!
Ozobot in Action Award
Phoebe and Mags, led by Coach Devine
This award recognizes the team whose Ozobot performance brought the most excitement, creativity, and spark to life.
And yes… there were unicorns and kitties.
Phoebe and Mags created a joyful, imaginative solution to beach cleanup while showing thoughtful iteration and excellent use of Ozobot as part of the solution. Their project was inventive, fun to watch, and a perfect example of coding in action.
Congratulations, Phoebe and Mags!
Collaboration & Communication Award
Tech Titans, coached by Coach Pickard
This award celebrates teams who make their ideas easy to understand and inspiring to watch.
From team names and matching t-shirts to confident verbal presentations and strong design documentation, Tech Titans showed what collaboration can look like when students take ownership of their ideas and share them proudly.
We loved the energy, the teamwork, and the thoughtful communication throughout.
Congratulations, Tech Titans!
Ingenuity Award
Students at Cathedral School of St. John the Divine, coached by Coach Solis
The Ingenuity Award honors inventive problem-solving and creative use of materials.
This team stood out for their intricate designs, strong iteration, and strategic thinking. Their project clearly demonstrated how testing and improving ideas leads to stronger solutions, a foundational engineering mindset.
Congratulations to Coach Solis and students at Cathedral School of St. John the Divine!
Why This Competition Matters
The Think Like an Engineer competition was built around lessons from the Ozobot K-5 Engineering Kit, helping students extend classroom learning into authentic design challenges rooted in environmental, mechanical, and design engineering.
And what we saw affirmed something we believe deeply at Ozobot:
Students of all ages are absolutely capable of thinking like engineers.
They can identify problems.
They can test ideas.
They can iterate.
They can code.
And they can explain how their solutions could make a difference.
That is powerful.
Through screen-free, hands-on engineering challenges, students weren’t just learning coding concepts. They were practicing resilience, collaboration, computational thinking, and creative confidence.
That is the heart of engineering education.
This Is Just the Beginning
As our first season of the Code & Conquer Series comes to a close, we’re already excited about what comes next.
If this inaugural competition taught us anything, it’s that students rise to meaningful challenges when they have the right tools, the right support, and the freedom to create.
Stay tuned for future Code & Conquer challenges and new ways to bring engineering, coding, and creative problem-solving to life with Ozobot.
Until then, congratulations again to all of our winners — and to every student who entered! You thought like engineers. And you made a difference.
Explore the Tools Behind the Competition
Want to bring these kinds of challenges to your classroom?
See the Ozobot K-5 Engineering Kit in action and discover hands-on lessons that help students code, build, test, and solve real-world problems.
