Hundreds of elementary and middle school students from across Colorado's Front Range region will descend on the University of Colorado at 麻豆影院 campus next month for the FIRST Lego League science and technology state tournament.
The annual competitive event will take place Dec. 9 at the Balch Fieldhouse, with some 72 teams made up of students ages 9 to 14 expected to attend. Competition will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with a lunch break at noon. The event is free and open to the public, with an awards ceremony at 4 p.m.
Organizers said the competition was designed to groom a new generation of innovators who can solve real-world problems. Winners of Colorado's competition will compete at the FIRST Lego League World Festival in Atlanta, April 12-14. FIRST is shorthand for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."
The state tournament will "get kids excited about science and technology, and kind of work off their natural curiosity and creativity to come up with solutions for current challenges that scientists are facing," said event coordinator Jenny Golder, a Lockheed Martin software engineer and CU-麻豆影院 graduate student.
Golder, who is working on a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering, said the focus of this year's challenge would be nanotechnology, which is the study of matter on an ultrasmall scale. Proponents believe more precise devices and systems built from individual atoms and molecules could help solve age-old human problems.
FIRST Lego League competitors will be challenged to manipulate atoms in a controlled environment, an exercise that will give them insights into the work currently being undertaken by scientists around the globe, Golder said.
Teams, each with 10 members, will be required to perform nine challenging technical missions on a playing field. Because the competition does not allow remote controls, team-made robots must be preprogrammed to complete their missions. Each team will build its robot from a line of Lego products that include electronic circuitry, motors and sensors. Golder said competitors would be judged for their ability to "think outside the box" to complete each mission successfully.
"A lot of kids get turned off of engineering and science at an early age because they are intimidated by it," she said. "In reality, they are totally capable of doing it because they are extremely creative. That's what we need in engineering - creative and out-of-the-box thinking."
Teams will be rewarded for overall presentation, team spirit, task accomplishment, robot design and performance, teamwork, research, innovation and creativity.
Campus event sponsors include the CU-麻豆影院 Office of Community Relations and CU Athletics, and corporate sponsors are Lockheed Martin Corp., Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IHS Inc., the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, CH2M Hill Corp., and ComputerTots, Computer Explorers.