FIRST Lego League

Wesbriar's FIRST Lego League (FLL) 

 

FLL is an exciting opportunity to inspire, excite, and introduce kids to the wonders of science, technology, and engineering.

 

• Teaches the benefits of teamwork
• Design, build, test and program robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology
• Apply real-world math and science concepts
• Research challenges facing today’s scientists
• Learn critical thinking, team-building and presentation skills
• Provides a culture of sharing and learning from others

The goal of FLL is to provide an experience that will capture children's curiosity and creativity and direct it toward discovering the possibilities of improving the world around them through understanding, thought, planning, and technology.

FIRST LEGO League is a robotics program for 9 to 14 year olds, which is designed to get children excited about science and technology -- and teach them valuable employment and life skills. In FLL, the children do the work! And the work is comprised of programming an autonomous robot (using the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robot set) to score points on a thematic playing surface and create an innovative solution to a problem as part of their research project.

 

We had a successful Fall 2011 season. Plans for the Spring 2012 are underway, but we are in need of a coach!

 

Role of Coach:  [Borrowing from the USFIRST.org website]:  “Teams require at least one adult coach.  As the coach you must be 18 or older.  Lots of people make good coaches such as parents, teachers, engineers, college students, and scout leaders.  It requires no special skill, just patience, dedication, and a willingness to learn alongside the team.  You will need to direct the process the team follows to solve the Challenge without providing the solution yourself.”

 

Realistically the coach must invest time and effort becoming relatively comfortable with the robotics kits to be used by the kids and with the educational material that supports the program.  This is done by attending local training/workshops, networking with other FLL coaches, adapting the coach’s handbook to our program and learning/doing with a LEGO Mindstorm kit.  We have the FLL equipment and a computer ready to go … now we need a volunteer who can commit the time and effort to bring a FLL program to Westbriar this spring.

 

If you would like to volunteer as a coach for our FLL team,

or if you have questions about coaching,

please contact John Clark (SAIC-Westbriar partnership) at

john-e-clark@comcast.net or 571-217-6406 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            571-217-6406      end_of_the_skype_highlighting by February 12th