Lego robots, along with creative thinking, problem-solving skills and teamwork, will be in action in the Engineering 5 building on December 4 as 250 youngsters aged nine to 14 compete in the FIRST League Lego (FLL) Waterloo qualifier, co-sponsored by Waterloo Engineering. Competing in this year’s “Food Factor” challenge, the teams have spent the last eight weeks building and programming Lego Mindstorm robots to accomplish up to 15 missions on a specialized mat. The missions include collecting bacteria and washing them off in a sink, delivering groceries, reversing pollution to protect food and lowering the temperature to keep refrigerated food safe. Teams will also present projects to develop innovative solutions to ensure the safe delivery of food to dinner tables.
Maud Gorbet, a Waterloo professor of systems design engineering, has coached a local team for three years and for the last four years, as part of Waterloo Engineering Outreach activities, has spearheaded increased local involvement in the program. “This program is fantastic for kids with science and engineering minds,” said Gorbet. “It gives them a chance to sharpen and develop skills including competitive play and sportsmanship. It also provides them with a sense of community.”
Competing in the qualifier will be 18 teams from local schools, four from the Greater Toronto Area, two from Brantford, two from Kincardine and two from Oshweken. Five of the teams will advance to a provincial tournament in January. The provincial tournament winners will compete in the First Lego League World Festival to be held in April in St. Louis. In the biggest season ever for the 30-year-old FLL, more than 20,000 teams in over 50 countries are competing in hundreds of qualifying and championship tournaments.
The FLL program offers a unique way for students to enjoy hands-on learning that is fun, open-ended and based on solving real-world problems. Students work as a team with teachers and parents acting as coaches and team mentors. Each year, the response from students has been overwhelming and local schools participating in the event often have more than one team to accommodate as many kids as possible.
This is the second year in a row that the regional qualifying FLL tournament will be held at the University of Waterloo. The teams will be judged for project presentation, robot performance, technical design and programming of the robot, and teamwork. The highest honour will go to the team that best exemplifies the spirit and values of the program.