South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
teamed up with East Middle School and the organization Empowering You to Be (EmBe) to host the 2019 FIRST LEGO League
Rapid City Qualifier from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 7, at East Middle
School.
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 included 20 registered teams, which is a record number for
this competition. Additionally, the junior league will feature another five teams
of 6 to 10-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 City Shaper Challenge. This event challenges students
to design and build robots that can solve various problems associated with
building and construction. The competition is divided into four parts
consisting of core values, project presentation, robot design judging and robot
games.
The following teams/individuals were recognized with the respective awards and 12
teams qualified for the State Championship in Sioux Falls on February 1st,
2020.
Champion’s Award: Ranger Robotics
Project Award: LEGO Jedi
Core Values Award: Tiger Tech
Robot Design Award: Everything is Awesome!
Robot Performance Award: Everything is Awesome!
Judges Award: Central SD Robotics
Outstanding Coach/Mentor
Award: Kiley Plooster (Rapid
Acceleration Program - FLL Jr., FLL, and FRC coaching/mentoring)
Outstanding Volunteer
Award: Evan Hammer (MC – 7 years and
running)
Teams who qualified for
state championship (alphabetical order):
Douglas Middle School
Robotics, Dream Team, Everything Is Awesome!, Fire Turtles, LEGO Jedi, LEGO
Rangers, New Underwood Tigers, Ranger Robotics, Southwest Synergy, Short
Circuits, Stagebarn Stallions, Tiger Tech
The FIRST LEGO League qualifier is held in coordination with EmBe, which is the
FIRST LEGO League state partner. Caterpillar sponsors many of the teams at the
Rapid City Qualifier.