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Students work together on a robotics project.Friends School of Wilmington (FSW) announced that beginning this 2013 school year, students will have the opportunity to participate and compete in the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) Global Robotics Program. FIRST LEGO League is “a robotics program designed to get children excited about science and technology—and teach them valuable employment and life skills.”
FSW Science teacher, Bruce Kenney, and Math teacher, Sean Berg, identified the program as a valuable offering for students and spearheaded the effort to make FSW the first and only member of the FLL in Wilmington.
Initially, FSW will offer FLL participation as an after school program, but the long-term goal is to include it in the school curriculum as an optional elective. Already, 15 students have enrolled in the after school FLL program, giving FSW enough kids to create two FLL teams.
“FLL is part of our STEM program at Friends School, focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. This program will provide a real preparatory foundation for students that may be interested in engineering or a similar field in the future,” said Berg.
How the League Works
FLL teams include up to 10 kids per team, plus a coach. Each team must design, build and program an autonomous robot using a standardized robot set provided by LEGO® MINDSTORMS®. Teams earn points based on performance in three categories:
Robotics - how fast a team’s robot can navigate an 8’ X 10’ thematic playing service
Solution Project - developing a creative solution to a problem; this year’s project theme is “Nature’s Fury”
Core Values – how well does the team exhibit and reflect the program’s core values
While adult coaches, mentors and parents are allowed to teach team members new skills, manage tournament logistics and ask questions to foster brainstorming sessions, only team members can make decisions and do any work related to strategic development, research, building, programming, and presenting at a tournament.
Teams may enter FLL tournaments at local and regional competitions with the potential to advance to national and even international events. The FLL gives away awards, including scholarships, to competition winners in a wide variety of performance categories.
To learn more about the program, visit the FLL website at www.firstlegoleague.org
To learn more about Friends School of Wilmington, visit www.fsow.org
