Ariana Harmon, 9, and Mateo Perez, 9, put the finishing touches on their Lego project.

WARSAW — Youngsters at Washington STEM Academy were given a challenge — figure out what to do with all this trash that humans accumulate.

For more than 100 students in the school’s first, second and third grades, the problem involved using Legos and robotics to engage in the ultimate garbage recycling program.

“The big idea was about trash, which was our theme this year,” said David Burden, the STEM instructional coach at the Washington STEM Academy. “So, first grade created models that represented current problems with trash, where do we find trash, how does trash become an issue, what are some of the effects of trash, that was their focus.”

The students were divided up into 28 teams of four and a showcase was presented for parents on Thursday, May 17.

“Each of the story starters show their representations of the problems with trash,” said Burden of the first-graders. Burden said second graders were assigned to illustrate current solutions to disposing of trash.

For third graders, the assignment was to show a brand new solution.

“The idea is, we still have a trash problem, let’s show a solution for trash that’s never been thought of,” said Burden.

“We’ve been doing this since April and tonight is our show me night where they get a chance to show their poster that shows information on what they’ve learned about trash and then they have their models to show what they’ve done.

From left, Cooper Brooks, 6, Rohit Patuala, 7 and Soma Patuala discuss Cooper and Rohit’s Lego project.