Think your kids are too old to play with Legos? Think again.
The First Lego League, an organization that teaches teamwork and problem solving through Lego Mindstorm Invention kits, is taking the area by storm for kids ranging from 6-year-olds to high-schoolers.
“It just keeps mushrooming,” says parent organizer Marc Couture.
Couture introduced First Lego League, or FLL, to Catholic Central Elementary at the end of 1998 after discovering the roots of the program at Brandeis University outside Boston. In the high-tech educational challenge, students design, build and program small autonomous robots out of a microprocessor computer and various Lego parts. Teams are given six to eight weeks to create a robot capable of performing various tasks on a large performance board in an obstacle course-type competition.
Regional and state competitions were held at the end of last year. Team points were earned through problem solving, project management, creativity, persistence, concept design and strategy.
“It’s pretty cool,” says Matt Kluge, a middle-schooler at Bethlehem Lutheran School in Hortonville. “It amazed me the first time I saw one of the robots run. It’s pretty challenging. You learn how to solve challenges with innovative ideas. And you learn how to build robots.”
This past year’s theme was “Ocean Odyssey,” and students were posed with the challenge of creating robots that could tackle nine challenges on the competition board. Among other things, the robots must remove a submarine from a ship and place it into the ocean, release dolphins into the open and construct an oil pipeline.
In team competition, the groups make verbal presentations to judges, explaining the genius of their robot and answering questions.
“It’s interesting – it’s something you don’t see everyday,” Kluge says. “I’ve learned a lot more about technology and how things work.”
Far from just playing with plastic bricks, the FLL challenges offer participants a range of educational experiences, from physics and mechanics to public speaking.
“At first, I think people look at Legos and say, ‘Oh, those are just little toys,’” says Steve Zuberbier, a Kimberly Clark employee who coaches the Bethlehem Lutheran team. “But the kids learn a lot about science and technology, and they get a chance to learn speaking skills and get up in front of a judge. It’s a great program.”
Kluge concurs. “My brother was in (FLL) and he didn’t like talking in front of people. But this made him get used to it.”
The students also got a lesson in diversity with 2004’s theme of “No Limitations.” They were asked to construct a robotic device that could help a person with a disability. “I’ve seen it work small miracles,” Couture boasts of the program.
Proof of its success is in the number of students who return year after year. “The kids who do this stay in it,” Zuberbier says. “We had 10 kids in it last year, and seven came back.”
“Once they attend an event, it’s the tournament experience that makes them want to come back,” Couture adds.
Tim Froberg is a reporter for The Post-Crescent, Appleton. Alison Fiebig of Neenah is a freelance write.
Lego side – levels of involvement
Students 6 on up can participate
Interested students can get involved and stay involved with First Lego Leagues throughout much of their academic careers, says organizer Marc Couture. A team of high-schoolers based out of Appleton East High School called “NEW Apple Core Robotics” has been running a robotics team for roughly nine years, Couture says. The version of FLL that he brought to the area is most appropriate for children 9 to 14 years old, he says.
There is also a program new to the area for a Junior First Lego League, designed for children ages 6 to 9 years old. And Couture is also developing another pilot program for high school students called the “First Vex Challenge,” one that is less “resource intensive” than the Appleton East robotics team.
“The First Vex Challenge is for small teams of five, six or seven kids,” he says. “You don’t need special tools or a workshop. You don’t need to know how to weld. The tasks can be done with fewer resources, fewer adults to chaperone, that sort of thing,” while the Apple Core Robotics team utilizes the mentorship of several adults and costs more than the First Vex group. Deciding which program to take is a “resource and financial decision that schools need to make,” Couture says, adding that First Vex is an option for those organizations that don’t have a lot of time or resources to invest in a Lego League program.
By the Numbers: Five fun facts about Legos
- Legos were invented in 1955 by a company in Denmark that originally made stepladders, ironing boards and wooden toys. They were then called “Automatic Binding Bricks.”
- The word “Lego” comes from the contraction of two Danish words, “leg godt,” which means “play well.”
- Lego Mindstorm robotics products came about in 1998 – the result of a corporate collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.
- “Fortune” magazine named the Lego brick one of its “Products of the Century” in 1999.
- There are four full-sized “Lego Land” theme parks worldwide – in southern California, Denmark, Germany and Canada.
