Huntsville Public Library forms its first competitive LEGO league robotics team

What could be more fun than LEGO? How about building a LEGO robot.

Huntsville Public Library opened registration for its first ever LEGO robotics team yesterday and it has already proved popular among library patrons – just two spots remain on the 10-member team of nine to 14-year-olds.

No previous experience with robots is required, says Cortney LeGros, the Library’s Coordinator, Outreach, Programs & Partnerships.

“STEM skills are so important,” says LeGros. “Even if kids have never programmed a robot before, don’t worry about it. Every kid knows how to play with LEGO, every kid knows how to build something, every kid is creative. We need different skills on the team – kids who can build, kids who are good at research, kids who are good at presenting. You don’t have to be an expert computer programmer to be on our team.”

The team will learn together and come up with creative solutions to a real-world problem posed by the FIRST LEGO League, an international competition that encourages kids to learn more about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). It launched in 1998 and has had more than 32,000 teams compete around the world.

The Library’s team will face its first competition in November in North Bay. They have until then to design a solution to the 2017 HYDRODYNAMICS Challenge, details of which were released today. Using LEGO MINDSTORMS technology, they will design, build and program a robot that will complete a mission related to water systems. They will also have to think about a real-world problem with the way people find, transport, use, or dispose of water and devise a solution to that problem.

The team’s robot will participate in games at the competition, and the team will also be required to create a poster and summary of their project for presentation.

Although the final two spots on the team will likely fill quickly, LeGros encourages anyone between the ages of 9-14 (or their parents) who is interested to contact her at 705-789-5232.

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