Mayan Memers earn honors
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 months, 3 weeks AGO
The Royal Intermediate School Mayan Memers brought home a trophy from the First Lego League competition Saturday.
COURTESY PHOTO/POLLY CARLSON
A Royal Intermediate School student shows the Mayan Memers’ innovation project, a modular research station for archaeologists to use in remote areas of Mexico and Guatemala.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | January 28, 2026 12:50 AM
ROYAL CITY — The Mayan Memers, made up of fourth through sixth graders, won second place for core values – sportsmanship, teamwork and things like that – at the regional competition, then won at state for their innovation project. The students designed a self-sufficient modular research station equipped with LIDAR drones so local indigenous people in the Mexican and Guatemalan jungle can lead the research into their own history
“They built a Lego model of what the research station would look like,” said advisor Polly Carlson, who teaches the Highly Capable classes at RIS. “There's a building and then they've got some solar panels on a tower, so they'll be above the trees, and a backup generator.”
The students spoke with about 10 different experts to fine-tune their solutions, Carlson said.
“They talked to someone who lives here in Royal who built a greenhouse in Haiti,” she said. “He came and talked to them about challenges building buildings in third-world countries. And we talked to someone from the state Department of Natural Resources. They have some LIDAR experts (who) did a Google meet with the kids. So people have just been really generous with their time, being willing to talk to the kids.”
RIS had two other teams that competed at the regional level but didn’t advance on to state, Carlson wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. The Talking Trees won the Innovation Award at regionals for their project about an app to share the voices of Native American and other stakeholders for important historical and archaeological sites, and the Majestic Munching Moles designed a device to dispense mint oil to deter burrowing pests at archaeological dig sites.
Because she runs the district’s gifted program, Carlson has known some of the children since they were in first grade, she said.
“It's really fun to see them grow up, start as like these tiny, quiet little kids and then find their voice and find what their interests are,” she said.
Many of her students have older siblings on Piper’s team, who help her students with their projects, she said.
“(Polly) does the hard work for me,” Piper said. “She teaches them when they're younger, so they come up to me often knowing a lot of the framework of what the expectation is (and) we get to fine-tune it.”
A Royal Intermediate School student shows the Mayan Memers’ innovation project, a modular research station for archaeologists to use in remote areas of Mexico and Guatemala.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
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