Grandville High School to Host Regional Lego League Events
GRANDVILLE, Mich., Nov. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On Saturday, November 23, Grandville plays host to its 14th annual Regional Lego League Qualifying Tournament – and its 8th annual Lego League Jr Expo. These two competitions will fill Grandville High School with more than 700 young inventors – and an expected 2,000 coaches, parents, grandparents, and friends. Public portions of the Lego League event start at 9am, and the Lego League Junior Expo will begin at 1pm.
The Regional Lego League event brings together hundreds of 4th – 6th grade students and their robots to compete in an annual FIRST Lego League competition, with winners advancing to the State of Michigan Lego League Championship. Every year, students are presented with a challenge or problem to solve. This year's FIRST Lego League challenge is City Shaper. Teams will compete on a playing field covered in missions made from Lego parts. They will present innovative solutions to city problems of the future, and they will participate in a special teamwork challenge. Full information on City Shapers can be found here: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge
Twenty-seven area robotics teams made up of 2nd – 3rd graders will also converge on Grandville High School this Saturday to compete in the West Michigan Lego League Junior Expo. This year our juniors are participating in Boomtown Build, the annual FIRST challenge for young elementary students. You can learn more about Boomtown Build at: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/flljr/challenge-and-season
November 23 is just the first weekend of the Robot Takeover of Grandville Public Schools. For three of the next four weekends, robots will take over Grandville's High School and Middle School. Gyms that are normally filled with student athletes, theaters that normally host student productions and community events, and classrooms that house extracurricular activities will all be devoted to three regional robotics competitions rarely seen in one community. Never before have robots taken over Grandville gyms, theaters, cafeterias, and classrooms for three of four consecutive weeks. In fact, nowhere in North America has this much young talent ever come together to compete in three events like these hosted by the same school district.
Event schedules and detailed information for spectators will be released in advance of each of the upcoming events, through the media and on the Grandville RoboDawgs blog (https://robodawgs.wordpress.com/), webpage (http://robodawgs.org/), and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TheRoboDawgs/).
Grandville Public Schools has been a leader in educational robotics for more than 22 years. On November 5, 2019, local voters approved school bonds to fund construction of the country's first built-for-purpose robotics competition arena.
Beginning with one high school robotics team in 1998, the program has now grown to include more than 90 teams based at the District's Robotics & Engineering Center. More than 400 students participate on fall Grandville robotics teams, designing, building, and programming robotics for competitions around the world. Grandville fields eighteen FLL Jr teams serving students in second and third grades. The District's Lego League and VEX IQ programs field 27 teams made up of fourth through sixth graders. These students go on to participate VEX Robotics program at the middle school and high school. Grandville High School also fields teams that compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition. The Grandville High School RoboDawgs have built and flown autonomous aerial drones for seven years and this year will launch more than 30 new RECF Aerial Drone teams. Our high school teams build autonomous vehicles to compete on land, water, and in the air.
For more information, contact the RoboDawgs at (616)540-3239, or one of the RoboDawg Head Coaches: Mike Evele – [email protected] or Doug Hepfer – [email protected]
SOURCE Grandville High School RoboDawgs
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