Arnold AFB STEM gears up for FIRST® LEGO® League Program 2017

  • Published
  • By Chris Warner
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  It’s LEGO® time!

With the beginning of the new school year, students begin to form and register their FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League teams and prepare for competition.

Each FLL® team will build a robot in accordance with their assigned themes and strategize how to move up through the competition.

The FIRST Program has four leagues: FIRST LEGO League Jr., FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). Each league is comprised of specific age groups, which allows children to progress into the other leagues as each year of competition goes by.

The 2017 themes are: FLL Jr. is Aqua Adventure, FLL is Hydro Dynamics, FTC is Relic Recovery and FRC is Steam Works.

The Arnold Air Force Base Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program is currently sponsoring 31 FIRST Program teams from schools across the Middle Tennessee region.

Many of the team’s mentors and coaches are AEDC team members.

The program isn’t just about building robots, it is about challenging students intellectually, teaching them leadership skills and inspiring creativity and inspiration to think outside the box.

The FIRST Program teaches participants its core values, which are built around sportsmanship and teamwork. According to LEGO League website, the FIRST LEGO League Core Values are:
• We are a team.
• We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.
• We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.
• We honor the spirit of friendly competition.
• What we discover is more important than what we win.
• We share our experiences with others.
• We display Gracious Professionalism® and Coopertition® in everything we do.
• We have FUN!

To create a team or register a team, contact the Arnold AFB STEM coordinator at (931) 454-7086.

To learn more about FIRST LEGO League, visit www.firstlegoleague.org.