A major event in the annual calendar for young Yukoners exploring the field of robotics will be held this weekend. The Yukon qualifier for the FIRST Lego League (FLL), a program that introduces children in many countries to the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through competitions dealing with the design of Lego robots, will be held on Jan. 20 at CSSC Mercier.
Through working with simple robots that utilize Lego parts, participants are introduced to principles of engineering, design, coding and critical thinking.
The league in the Yukon is managed by Robotics North Society. The qualifier event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 20 with spectators welcome. Robotics North Society president Leanne Watson said some of the highlights for spectators are likely to be the showcase of larger and more complex robots by high school level kids in the school’s back atrium from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
At 1 p.m. the FIRST Lego League games in the ages 9-15 category will begin.
There will be seven Lego League challenge teams, some organized from home and others through school clubs, including one team from Faro. Watson told the News that these teams have been hard at work since August honing the design and performance of their robots in a variety of tasks. The teams are also working at an innovation project that aims to use simple robotics to solve a real world problem within this year’s theme, “the arts in science.” Along with competition performance, the teams are judged on how well they work together to overcome challenges.
Yukon students have gone far in national and international Lego League competitions. In 2022, the Yukon All Sparks team made it to the Canada Cup and medalled at B.C. provincials. More recently, in 2023 a Yukon team made it to the “California Western Edge” Lego League event, which drew teams from numerous countries.
Watson called this a huge accomplishment as there are hundreds of thousands of participants in the Lego League worldwide.
The older tech challenge students have also been competing out of province; they participated remotely in a qualifier with B.C. teams this week. Their scores from the qualifier will be unveiled at the Jan. 20 event.
Along with the FLL and FIRST Tech Challenge, Robotics North also supports the Lego League “explore” category, a non-competitive program aimed at students in Grades 2 to 4.
Contact Jim Elliot at jim.elliot@yukon-news.com