FIRST Lego League
News Flash: Division II Megabyte Knights won honors in the state competition in January. Read more.FIRST Lego League (FLL) is a fun and engaging extra-curricular activity available at SCCS for students in grades 4 – 8 that utilizes math, science, and Legos® to allow students to explore robot design and programming as well as expand their knowledge of specific topics of ongoing scientific research. The focus of the program is twofold: FIRST Lego League teams design, build, and program a robot to complete specified tasks, and they also do research and develop solutions related to a presented real world area of study. Each year the topic for research and specific robot tasks changes. This 2008-2009 topic is titled “Climate Connections.”
The culmination of the FIRST Lego League season is a regional competition where teams are judged on teamwork, robot design and programming, robot performance, and a team research presentation. Teams may qualify to progress to a state-wide tournament, competing against the best teams in Minnesota. In the 3 years SCCS has had a FIRST Lego League team, it has qualified to advance to state competition twice, one year achieving 1st place for programming and 4th place overall at the state level.
The FLL program at St. Croix Catholic School has expanded this year, with the formation of three teams, two teams in Division I (4th through 6th grade) and one team in Division II (6th through 8th grade). Participating students are researching how climate affects the community they live in, identifying specific challenges that climate brings to an aspect of their community, and then developing innovative solutions to the problems or challenges they have identified. Robot “missions” are base upon the climate theme as well. This year’s robot missions include having the robot “turn off lights,” “extract an ice core sample,” and “insulate a house” among 15 other interesting challenges.
We are excited at SCCS to offer such an excellent program to our students which in addition to teaching teamwork, research skills, programming skills, and robot design also promotes students’ awareness and interest in science careers. We know that those who have chosen to participate in FIRST Lego League here at SCCS have learned a tremendous amount and have had great fun doing it. In past years our FLL students have studied nanotechnology, alternative energy sources, and the ocean. We look forward to seeing this year’s team-designed robots, watching them perform, and learning what innovative solutions our students develop based on their research of “Climate Connections!” Go Teams!!
