First LEGO League

South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is teaming with East Middle School to host the 2018 FIRST LEGO League Rapid City Qualifier from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 8, at East Middle School. The event is free and open to the public.

FIRST LEGO League is an educational extracurricular activity for youth ages 9-14. This event focuses on teamwork, societal challenges and STEM. Teams have been working together since August, learning to build and program competitive autonomous robots, which must complete various tasks within a given time to earn points.

This year’s event includes 19 registered teams, which is a record number for this competition.  Additionally, the junior league will feature another three teams of 6 to10-year-old students and the high school team. In total the FIRST LEGO League will include well over 100 youth participants.

The theme this year is Into Orbit. This challenges students to design and build robots that can solve various problems associated with human space exploration. The competition is divided into four parts consisting of core values, project presentation, robot design judging and robot games.

The FIRST LEGO League qualifier is held in coordination with EmBe, which is the FIRST LEGO League state partner. Caterpillar is a major sponsor of the event. The company supports many of the teams at the Rapid City Qualifier.

Photo is courtesy of FIRST LEGO League.

Content courtesy of SD Mines