Robots and innovation win awards at Lego tournament
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FIRST LEGO League TU Shannon Regional Day 1 winners of Robot Design Team Artifact Avengers from Dalystown National School.Image 2 of 3
FIRST LEGO League TU Shannon Regional Day 1 winners of the Innovation Project 2D to 3D from Our Lady’s Bower Secondary School.Image 3 of 3
FIRST LEGO League TU Shannon Regional Day 1 winners of the Robot Game Team Deep Logic from Mullingar Community College.The Lego League Unearthed tournament in TU Shannon Athlone last week drew schools from all across the country to demonstrate their technical skills.
The overall winners were Stokane National School, from Enniscrone in Sligo, and few Westmeath teams also found success at the competition: Mullingar Community College won the Robot Game Category; Dalystown National School, otherwise known as Team Artifact Avengers,received the robot design award; and Our Lady’s Bower in Athlone received the Innovation Project Award.
Ross Maguire, chief impact officer at Creative Hut, coordinator for First Lego League in Ireland, was delighted to see the turnout at this year’s competition. “Teachers and all of us involved find it a joy to see how this initiative helps make STEM simpler and more inclusive. From brainstorming solutions to building models, the young people seamlessly experience STEM in action, and have real fun in the process”
The theme for this year was Unearthed, and it invited competing teams to dig into the past and uncover hidden treasures, artefacts and stories. With the help of an adult, the teams design and build Lego robots while tackling themed missions.
The programme is supported for the fifth year by the Research Ireland Discover Programme. Dr Ruth Freeman, director of Research for Society at Research Ireland, says it aligns strongly with their mission to widen participation in STEM.
“Teaching teamwork, design and programming skills, based around childhood LEGO building bricks are inspired. Science and technical skills can be fun and engaging, and the secret for educators is to find the fun and games, and the story-telling and puzzles, to awaken young people’s minds to the enjoyment and fascination of science.”
The tournament is celebrating its 10th year in Ireland and in that time, more than 35,000 young people have taken part.
The top team from this year’s First Lego League Challenge will represent Ireland at the European FLL Championships this summer.