The Vernon County Youth Task Force and the City of Nevada Parks and Recreation Department are proud to announce they have been awarded a grant from 3M to fund a FIRST LEGO League.
FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is a global program created to get kids excited about science and technology. Geared for ages 9-14, FLL utilizes theme-based Challenges to engage children in research, problem solving, and engineering. The cornerstones of the program are its Core Values, which emphasize contributions of others, friendly sportsmanship, learning, and community involvement.
Each annual Challenge has two parts, the Project and the Robot Game. Working in teams of up to 10 students and guided by at least one adult coach, team members have about 10 weeks to:
- Build an autonomous robot that will, in 2 minutes and 30 seconds, complete pre-designed missions
- Analyze, research, and invent a solution for a given assignment
- Create a clever presentation about their solution to perform in front of a panel of judges
Teams complete a Challenge which is made up of the Robot Game and the Project. Through the Robot Games, teams build and program an autonomous robot using LEGOMINDSTORMS technology to score points in 2.5 minute matches on a themed playing field.
Through the Project, teams explore an actual problem that today’s scientists and engineers are trying to solve, develop an innovative solution to that problem (either by creating something that doesn’t exist or building up on something that does), and share their findings with others.
The Vernon County Youth Task Force group SHOUT and the City of Nevada Parks and Recreation Department are excited to announce five Vernon County youth teams are actively participating in the FIRST LEGO League.
The Parks Department will host an unsanctioned event to assist in preparing the youth to participate in the larger qualifying tournaments that take place in the greater Kansas City area.
If a team qualifies in one of three tournaments, they move on to the state tournament, also held in Kansas City. Placing in the regional would allow them to advance to the national tournament. Qualifying tournaments begin in November with the National tournament being held in late April.
