Welcome to the Flying Geeks Website
The Lego League team of Nashua Christian Academy.
FIRST (For Inspiration of Science and Technology) Lego League is an integral part of the enrichment program at NCA offering Junior High students an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on experience in engineering and computer programming principles. As they construct and program their robot using LEGO bricks and other elements such as sensors, motors, and gears, students have a great time working with their coaches, competing with their robots, making friends with other teams, and presenting their work to adult judges.
FIRST Lego League or FLL is the creation of Dean Kaman and MIT professor Woody Flowers. According to Dean, the goal of the FIRST organization is "...to create a world where science and technology are celebrated... where young people dream of becoming science and technology heros..."
So what do the students think about Lego League? As NCA Lego League alumni CT Spaulding puts it:"Lego League was an amazing time for me. A chance to test my ideas, to stretch myself and to work closely with other kids. To do things I have never done before. The competition was unbelievable and it wasn't always easy. At times I felt really challenged and a bit overwhelmed but that experience might be the most valuable part of the years I spent at Lego League."
BEGINNINGS. Lego League is an annual game that is revealed to teams in September and, in New Hampshire, culminates with 50 teams competing all-day Saturday in early December. For those 8-12 weeks the team(s) will meet 3-4 times a week to brainstorm, design, build, refine and finish their robot and accompanying research project based on that year's theme.
There are 4 parts to this competition, Robot Performance, Technical, Project and Teamwork.
- The Performance part of the competition challenges the team to accomplish various missions and accumulate points with their robot built from Legos. These missions are run on a table and require the use of computer coding, light and touch sensors, motors, gears and many, many Lego blocks.
- For the Technical part of the competition, the team discusses the engineering of their robot and how it will navigate each of the challenges on the table. Specifics about how the computer programming was designed, durability of the robot, and how the team members work with the robot are all presented to a panel of engineering professionals.
- The third part of the competition is Teamwork. Each team is observed throughout the day and interviewed to determine how well they work together. Sometimes they are given a problem to solve on the spot such as building a tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows.
- Finally for the Project section, each team presents their research about a current topic: nanotechnology, pollution, travel to Mars etc. Each team makes their presentation using whatever props they deem necessary, answering questions about their research and conclusions. The teams are required to find an improvement to existing technology and then design a practical solution featuring it.
GAME DAY. One of the most exciting and intense parts of the competition is at the tables. This is when all the long hours spent programming and building the robot over the past 2 months come under scrutiny as you run your program across the table from another team under the timer. The goal is to score a maximum of 400 points within the 2-and-a-half minute time limit. (See video.) The top teams then compete in playoff rounds with the top team emerging as the winner.
With 800 screaming fans chanting "Flying Geeks - Geeks Can Fly!" it can get a bit nerve-racking. In addition to the competition, each team presents their research project to adult judges during the day. They also are required to walk another set of judges through their process for building the robot, discussing the merits of their programming, robot and table strategy.
To prepare for this very full day, the weeks before the competition are a whirlwind of activity. They contact experts in the field of study, gleaning from their expertise.The team travels to engineering companies to present their robot, honing their presentation skills. Then weeks before the State competition, they need to win at a regional tournament to garner an invitation to the States.
"The students have an opportunity to try their hand at programming the robot using a PC and then testing their solution at the table. There is a lot of "real life" test and retesting that goes on, and a lot of discussion of what works, and what doesn't. A real synergy of hardware and software design starts to take shape with new ideas being tried every day. At some point a student may have the "Aha" experience of suggesting a impossibly clever solution to a knotty problem. These are the kind of situations that make the many hours all worthwhile."
Lego League offers many opportunities for Junior High students. It gives them a terrific opportunity to try something different, work in a team setting, learn about new technology and science. They can delve into a real-life problem and design a solution.
They have the chance to prove to themselves, their peers, their coaches and the judges they present to, that their ideas have merit. And who knows, maybe their ideas could lead to solutions for the future.
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