The iHub hosted a T.E.A.M.work Robotics Retreat for middle school FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams on Saturday, October 11.
Five teams from Northeast Nebraska participated in sessions to learn more about the FLL program and focus on enhancing their abilities to Think, Engineer, Achieve, and Master the competition.
Local leaders facilitated morning sessions on topics including leadership and public speaking. During these activities, students used teamwork to practice their leadership skills in challenges such as building a tower from spaghetti strands and marshmallows.
Later in the day, students learned more about technical aspects of the FIRST LEGO League program with sessions hosted by experienced volunteers, coaches, and FLL alumni. Groups explored ways to enhance their programming skills, robot design, engineering notebooks, and use of sensors. The program concluded with working sessions for teams to practice robot game missions and team presentations.
“We wanted to provide this opportunity for newer teams to engage with each other and build skills to elevate their competitiveness in FIRST LEGO League,” said Henry Goeden, Robotics tainer at Northeast Community College’s iHub. “FLL is an incredible program which helps students develop both leadership and technical skills, and we hope providing opportunities like this will help it continue to grow and become more accessible to young people.”
The event also featured sessions for coaches to interact, share ideas, and learn from more experienced coaches and volunteers. Goeden added that this experience helps boost new coaches’ confidence which ultimately allows teams to flourish.
Participating teams will continue to build and program LEGO robots throughout the season, while also developing Innovation Projects which are student-led solutions to real challenges faced by professional scientists and engineers.
This year’s theme, UNEARTHED, is focused on archaeology. Teams will meet again in a few months for a regional Mini-Play Tournament before traveling to Lincoln in March for the FLL State Championship hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
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