In February, teams from across the NPUC headed for Columbia Adventist Academy (CAA) for the North Pacific FIRST LEGO League Challenge. Collaborating with the North Pacific Union and Adventist Robotics, this was CAA's first year to host the Challenge. Most recently hosted by Auburn Adventist Academy, the LEGO League Challenge acts as a qualifier for the international Adventist Robotics FIRST Tech Challenge competition, which will be held in Orlando, Florida this spring. Seven teams participated this year, representing schools and homeschool groups from Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Oregon.
“Each team is led by a teacher or volunteer mentor,” shared Oregon Conference VP for Education Ron Jacaban, who has been working with the program for several years. “It’s a multifaceted competition that goes beyond LEGO Robotics, even though that’s what gets most of the attention. Each year there’s a theme and a problem that the clubs get together to create a solution for. They do research, come up with their core values, create prototypes and presentation boards, and even get into some public speaking. When they get together for the LEGO Robotics competition, these teams spend the morning with judges that review their projects and ask them questions about their team and their research. The clubs get to respond and defend their projects – there’s so much more that they do than people usually think about. It’s an incredible opportunity for our kids to learn and develop skills they can take with them for the rest of their lives, and they have so much fun doing it.”
Teams range in size from 4 to 10 team members and kids grades 4-8 are eligible to participate in FIRST LEGO League Challenge. High performing teams in their regions earn the chance to continue competing. This year’s LEGO cup winner of the North Pacific qualifier was Mount Ellis Academy's 406 Bricks. They'll get the chance to compete against other teams from around the world at the international competition in Florida.
“In the Oregon Conference we believe in creating opportunities for our kids,” said Jacaban. “Traditionally we’ve provided athletic opportunities, music festivals, and so much more. But there are still so many students that don’t fall into those areas of interest. Having something like the LEGO Robotics tournament as an outlet for these students is so important to us, and we want to step up our support for it. It’s a great opportunity for the kids to stoke some of those ideas to the areas they might want to study in the future. It’s my hope that this continues to grow and that more and more schools participate in the future!”
If you would like to learn more about Adventist FIRST LEGO Robotics visit adventistrobotics.net. To learn how you can volunteer or sponsor our North Pacific FIRST LEGO Robotics competition next year, contact Ron Jacaban at Ron.Jacaban@OregonAdventist.org.
