FIRST LEGO League Robotics Qualifier on Dec 1 in Belcamp, MD

On Saturday, December 1, 2012, six of more than 260 Maryland FIRST LEGO League teams will be competing in the first of 12 state qualifiers. The event is being held at SURVICE Engineering’s Brass Mill facility in Belcamp and is sponsored by SURVICE Engineering and TechBrick Robotics.

Teams of 6-10 young engineers, ages 8-14, will be joining us. They are from the following schools and organizations:

• Boys & Girls Club of Harford County (2 teams)
• Hall's Cross Roads Elementary
• MD School of the Blind
• Saint Margaret’s (2 teams)

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is one of the four programs offered by US FIRST. These programs span ages 5-18 and involve more than 300,000 children in 51 countries. The state organization, Maryland FIRST has more than 550 teams in the four programs and 250+ FLL teams. Given the stunning growth of the program over the past 6 years, they must hold qualifiers in which teams compete for one of the 72 slots at the state competition in January at UMBC.

FIRST LEGO League challenges young engineers on every level and compels them to develop real-world working skills and solutions. Each year FLL uses a theme for the challenge. This year the theme is “Senior Solutions.”

To succeed students must do the following:

• Interview a senior and develop a program or solution to assist with that senior’s needs.
• Create a full project and presentation
• Program a robot to do numerous missions that are based around the challenges that seniors face (lifting, reaching, carrying, etc.)
• Do creative exercises to demonstrate the teamwork skills they have developed during the season.

This will make a very positive community service story. It will show children from a wide range of backgrounds doing science that will make your head spin. They are amazing. There will be a hundred or more spectators as well.

What should you cover?

• 9:40 AM-11:50 AM: The teams will be judges on the three major judging areas. Media may watch the judging and interview teams in the pits. In addition, there will be demonstrations of our larger robots (HS programs).
• 11:50-1:00 PM: Lunch. If you let us know you are coming we will invite you to join the 31 volunteers for lunch.
• 1:00 PM-1:30 PM: Opening Ceremony. This will feature some key sponsors (SURVICE Engineering and Harford County Boys and Girls Clubs) and will introduce the afternoon’s actives.
• 1:30 PM-3:00 PM: Competition Matches: These are the very exciting head-to-head matches were the public gets to see the robots run.
• 4:00 PM-4:30 PM: Closing Celebration and Awards.

TechBrick Robotics is in its 10^th year of providing out-of-school robotics programs for homeschoolers and public/private school students in the Harford, Cecil, and Baltimore County areas.

Location:

SURVICE Engineering Brass Mill facility

1362 Brass Mill, Suite 2

Belcamp, MD 21017

http://goo.gl/maps/Nn5p

Background Research:

TechBrick Robotics:  http://www.techbrick.com

SURVICE Engineering:  http://www.survice.com

Maryland FIRST:  http://www.mdfirst.org

US FIRST:  http://www.usfirst.org

FIRST LEGO League:  http://www.firstlegoleague.org