CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than 100 teams from 30 West Virginia counties will be putting their Lego skills to the test across the Mountain State during the First Lego League Robotics Competition regional qualifiers. The competition begins Saturday.
The First Lego League is designed to introduce younger students to real-world engineering challenges by having them build Lego-based robots to complete tasks on a playing surface.
“These competitions and these challenges can take them all the way through their childhood,” said Melissa Thompson, associate professor of civil and draft engineering technology at BridgeValley Community and Technical College in Fayette County.
BridgeValley Community and Technical College is one host site for the competition that will be held Saturday at the Advanced Technology Center in South Charleston.
A total of 21 teams, made up of students between the ages of nine and 14, from Kanawha, Boone, Doddridge, Monongalia, Wood, Harrison, Greenbrier, Fayette, Summers, Taylor and Raleigh counties are registered to participate there with their robots.
“They will be given tasks for their robot to perform and they’ve programmed their robot to perform these tasks and they have go through those competitions and prove that they’ve designed their robot effectively,” Thompson said.
Similar qualifying events will be held in Huntington and Weston on Saturday and in Morgantown and Shepherdstown on Nov. 22. The winners advance to the First Lego League State Tournament which is scheduled for Fairmont on Dec. 6.
Several informal Lego scrimmages have already been held this year ahead of the regional qualifiers.
West Virginia’s First Lego League is sponsored by the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium and the Bharti Family.
The NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium consists of 12 West Virginia academic institutions and eight corporate and scientific partners dedicated to promoting science, technology, engineering and math education.