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.
UPDATE:
The FIRST LEGO League Rapid City Qualifier was a huge
success thanks to East Middle School Principal Scott Phares, Sarah Jensen, and Mines
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jason Ash plus all the coaches/mentors and volunteers
for the time dedicated to the participants in this program.
The event included 18 FLL teams (109 students total) along
with 2 FLL Junior Teams and the FRC Rapid Acceleration high school team.
The teams/individuals were recognized with the following
awards and 10 FLL teams qualified for the FLL State Championship in Sioux Falls
on February 2nd, 2019.
Champion’s Award: Hill City Ranger Robotics
Project Award: Lego My Ego
Core Values Award: Preperoni’s
Robot Design Award: Tera Bytes
Robot Performance Award: S.L.E.G.O.
Rising Star Awards: Team Cavaliers
Outstanding Coach/Mentor Award: Mary and Alan Anderson (Tera
Bytes)
Outstanding Volunteer Award: Sarah Jensen (East Middle
School Facilities Coordinator + Teacher & Coach)
Teams who qualified for state championship (alphabetical
order): East MS Dream Team, Hill City Ranger Robotics, New Underwood Tigers,
Preperoni’s, RA The Best Martian, Set to Win – SKOAR, S.L.E.G.O., Team
Cavaliers, Tera Bytes, Tiger Techs