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The team build was done on the MainStage in front of an audience.
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This year's and last year's Destroyers side by side.
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Williams Team Breaks Record on Lego Star Destroyer Build

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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Some of the students pose with their creation on Wednesday.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Lego "team" at Williams College proved a Force to be reckoned.  

Some 70 students from the college and Williamstown Elementary School snapped more than 3,000 Legos together to create a Super Star Destroyer in less than 10 minutes.

In 9 minutes, 31 seconds to be exact.

That's nearly a minute faster than last year's attempt.

The record-breaking event took place Wednesday afternoon at the '62 Center as parents and the Williams community cheered them on.

Fifty-nine of the ship-building students had been taking "The Mathematics of Lego Bricks," a monthlong Winter Study class offered by mathematics professor Steven Miller. This culmination of the class set the goal to build the Lego set in under 10 minutes.

"The problem was to choose a time that was long enough to be possible, short enough to keep things interesting," said Miller.

The professor said Legos have a lot of ways to illustrate math and problem solving, starting at the most basic level: "How many ways can I put the Lego bricks together."

The program also gives students an opportunity to experience the need for efficiency and teamwork under stress — something they may not have had to deal with at this point in their lives.

"Over here, if something goes wrong you can learn a lesson, you learn 'how do we set up an organization to both congregate authority and responsibility, to keep everybody motivated?'" Miller said.


The students were very much in charge of the strategy for the build, from being in charge of the bags of specific pieces to building components so each was ready when needed. Almost a dozen Williamstown pupils participated.

The result was 3,152 pieces combined to create the 50-inch long Star Wars Star Destroyer.

"The students were in charge of what they needed ... my job was to let them figure out how to do it," Miller said.

The event took place on the MainStage with a camera recording the action from above for the audience to follow along.  

Miller hopes to involve Williamstown Elementary more next year with an "Adventures in Learning" program.

In the spring, he's planning to bring the community and college together for some inspirational building at Williams College Museum of Art with a more than 4,000-piece Lego London Bridge.

"The goal is to just get a bunch of pieces and give them to the kids to be inspired," he said. "I've done a lot of things in the '62 Center, I've done a lot of things in WCMA this year.

"This is one of the things that make Williams such an attractive place to be, this sense of community and crossing the boundaries."

As for the Guinness World Records, Miller said the cost is a couple thousand to be listed.

"It would be nice to be in the Guinness Book to show people, but I'd much rather use the money to buy things ... we can buy a lot more sets and can have a lot of fun."


Tags: community event,   competition,   math,   Williams College,   

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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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