Putting the finishing touches on their electronic marvels, the students prepare to maneuver their Lego robot onto the playing field and through the obstacles. Having prepared 8 weeks for this notorious competition, students from many schools come together as a group to outplay and outperform their competitors.
Judged by their Robot Design, Robot Performance, Project, and Core Values, the students at FLL, First Lego League, strive for success in the making of this challenging and extensive project. And, for the first time in history, Jesuit will be a host for this international competition on Saturday, December 8th.
As stated on the FLL website: “The FIRST® LEGO® League program is designed to show kids how exciting science, technology, and engineering can be”. Coming from 32 teams of 3 to 10 members each, these 5-8th graders (ages 9-14) look forward to this international competition to put their research, critical thinking, and creativity skills to the test!
Throughout the process of this project, the teams encounter challenges similar to those faced by scientists and engineers as they identify a problem and develop an innovative solution. Numbering to an approximate of 17,000 teams worldwide, the competitors of FLL receive an early sneak peak on the challenges of engineering and further receive the opportunity to put what they have learned in the classrooms into creating these creative machines.
“Being able to host such an opportunistic tournament has been a privilege for the Jesuit Robotics Team,” states Michael Couvillon, a math teacher and Robotics Coach. As a child, Couvillon found playing nonstop with LEGOs as an innovating and exhilarating activity and sees using robotics platforms for LEGOs as simply “making sense”.
After attending the past FLL competition in Parish, Couvillon notes that these excited and committed competitors “eat and sleep robotics” and looks forward the opportunity of bringing the FLL to Jesuit. Specifically, having coached 7 middle school teams at Santa Clara and Saint Mary of Carmel through the Community Service and Social Justice Program, Jesuit hopes to prepare these hardworking students for entrance into the FRC, or First Robotics Competition, the “Varsity” of Robotics competitions.
Chosen by the Perot Museum to sponsor an event this spring, Jesuit Robotics looks to this competition to build awareness for Jesuit’s robotics program and personally reach out to these middle school students excited in pursuing robotics. Couvillon says this competition, more than anything, is Jesuit’s effort to help the greater community know what great things these younger students are taking part of and feed their inner-flame of excitement towards this educational activity.
For the past few weeks, Jesuit has been preparing the playing ground for this local December 8th qualifying tournament, so come see these students compete with their variety of LEGO-robot creations and support the Jesuit Robotics Team.
