Teamwork and Volunteering- New York City FIRST LEGO League
Volunteering has always been a part of my life whether it
was raising money for charities, tutoring children at women’s shelters, doing
home maintenance at a halfway house, or caroling for the elderly. It is very
rewarding to be a part of a community and to lend a helping hand when people and
organizations are in need. I feel that sometimes in order to succeed, teamwork
is necessary and your contribution can really make a difference.
Scoring and Ranking Station
This year, I started volunteering for New York City FIRST LEGO League. FLL is a
program that introduces students as young as the age of six all the way up to
middle school into the world of robotics. Through robots, students explore
math and science concepts as they act like engineers to create solutions and
solve missions that are relatable to modern day issues.
This year’s FLL theme is Food Factor. Each team of up to 10
participants had to build a LEGO robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS technology. The
robot is programmed and controlled by a little computer chip. It’s all very
high tech and possible to master. No prior technical skills required! The main
challenge in the competition was to complete various missions such as pest
control, oblige to health standards, and to harvest crops all through these
robots. Each team had two and a half minutes to complete as many missions as
possible.
The Robot Game and robot in action:
The event requires a large team of volunteers. There is an
emcee, sign in table, cleaning crew, referees, time keepers, etc. I volunteered
to be a Score Keeper and Field Power Controller. My job was to take the score
cards from the referees and enter in each team’s winnings to populate the
rankings. It is a time sensitive role and one of high pressure especially when
there can be as many as 25 teams and multiple rounds. Everyone wants to know
their score and rank. Plus the scores are projected live on the main screen.
I was amazed by the composure, enthusiasm, and intellect of
the students. This competition exposes the students to real life scenarios
where team work, communication, critical thinking, and leadership skills must
be utilized and fostered. There is a lot of support for the teams as mentors, parents, classmates, mascots, and friends cheered on in the sidelines.
Robo Pandas
Food Fighters
The winning team of each borough gets to go on to the next
level and eventually there is a larger competition with teams from all over the
world. The next big event will be at the Jacob K. Javits center in Manhattan on March 16-18.
This event will host a career fair, New York City FIRST Robotics Competition, Tech
Challenge Championship, LEGO League Championship, and JrFIRST LEGO League
Exposition.
There is a need for plenty of volunteers. If you would
like to help out and volunteer, please go to the FIRST website to learn about
the volunteer roles and follow the volunteer sign up instructions to get
registered. Be a part of the FLL community.
No comments:
Post a Comment