First Lego League

Many students at St. Croix Catholic School are participating in FIRST LEGO® League (FLL), an exciting team sport for the mind open to all children ages 9 – 14. FLL applies math, science, and technology in a fun, real-world problem solving puzzle. Designing, building and programming a robot is one aspect of the program; the other is research.

FLL teaches important life skills that encourage our students to become effective, successful, positive contributors to our society. The children are given opportunities to develop interpersonal skills, teamwork, patience and time management. They meet business professionals from fascinating areas of technology and are made aware of the tremendous career paths available to them. Through FLL, students learn they are a piece of the puzzle, and that the whole, by working together, is indeed greater than the sum of all its parts. FLL has been an important element in our continuing emphasis on developing the Whole Child here at SCCS.

This is St. Croix Catholic’s third year in the FLL program. In the first two years of competition, our SCCS Division I team placed tenth and fourth in State Tournaments. They also received two first place awards specific to Research and Programming.

SCCS continues to sponsor a Division I team, the Solar Surfers, coached by Dan Schlegel and Michelle Lemanski. For 2007, the Middle School has added a team at the more challenging Division II level. That team has chosen the name MegaByte Knights. This year’s research project focuses on energy use and proposing solutions to reduce consumption or to utilize alternative energy sources beyond that of fossil fuels. The MegaByte Knights chose to do an energy audit of our school building and will soon be analyzing, brainstorming, researching and solving this energy puzzle. They are challenged to come up with short and long term solutions as well as to present these positive changes to the greater community.

Our Division II coaches, Mary Riehm, Wendi Schirvar and Amy Henschell, have spent a great deal of time focusing on ways to include all students. As parents and educators we have many gifts to share with our students, and this program further demonstrates our sense of community here at SCCS. Tournament judges have confirmed that our students consistently display respectful, cooperative character and behavior.

We look forward to seeing the MegaByte Knights on December 9 in the Regional Competition in Mahtomedi. Go MegaByte Knights and Solar Surfers!