Building more than robots

 

Members of the DeSales First Lego League team, The Unsinkables, are ready to compete on Dec. 6 in Cedar Rapids. The young engineers include (front, l-r) Luke Frederich, Carson Brincks, Josie Keck, and Sam Conway; (back) Paul Hageman, Cayden Kleppe, and Trey Kriener. (Zakary Kriener photo)

 

Building more than robots

 

 

Zakary Kriener
News Writer
zkriener@fayettepublishing.com

 

 

First Lego League (FLL) is a program that was created in 1998 to help convey the fun and excitement of science and technology to students in grades four through eight.

Today, FLL has over 25,000 teams competing in 80 countries throughout the world. Two of the teams competing this year are from the Ossian community, with DeSales School and South Winneshiek Middle School each having a squad.

First Lego League consists of two major components for the students.

The first component is the robot missions, which allows the students to build a Lego robot that is capable of completing various missions.

An example of one of the missions is a robot that maneuvers its way around a game board. Once the robot has found the correct position, it engages a catapult that launches a ball over a small obstacle and then into a goal.

The other major component of FLL is the project. The objective for this year’s project is to come up with a new way of teaching something.

A common goal for FLL participants is to encourage gracious professionalism. Although the individual teams are competing against each other, the students are all working toward the same goal of learning and exploring the wonders of science and technology.

First Lego League allows students to learn many different skills, including engineering and programming.

South Winneshiek FLL coach Mike Wenthold explained that teamwork, creative thinking, and various social skills are also emphasized.

“Personally, I am entranced by the robot mission component. It’s no wonder why the kids keep applying to participate every year,” says Wenthold, the first-year coach of the program. “It is a very intensive program and requires a lot of time and dedication.”

Both the South Winneshiek and DeSales teams will be competing in separate competitions on Saturday, Dec. 6. South Winneshiek’s Warrior Robotics team will travel to Cedar Falls, while the DeSales squad, The Unsinkables, will compete in Cedar Rapids. Jane Busch coaches the DeSales team.

If the teams score well enough, they will advance to the state competition, held in January on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames.

“Perhaps more than any extracurricular activity that I have ever coached, (FLL) teaches skills that are absolutely necessary to be successful and productive as adults,” added Wenthold, who is also a South Winneshiek teacher and coach.

Rate this article: 
No votes yet
Comment Here