CU Denver’s College of Engineering, Design and Computing Hosts Lego Championship

Last weekend, CU Denver’s College of Engineering, Design and Computing hosted the State Colorado First Lego League Championship.

What is First Lego League?

“FIRST^® LEGO^® League introduces science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to children ages 4-16* through fun, exciting hands-on learning. Participants gain real-world problem-solving experience through a guided, global robotics program, helping today’s students and teachers build a better future together.

Our three divisions inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding, and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics.”

On Saturday, December 9th, Fifty-two teams and over five hundred participants from all over the state (the furthest from Telluride) descended on the CU campus.

“Every year, FIRST^® LEGO^® League releases a new Challenge based on a real-world, scientific theme.

Starting with Discover, children are introduced to the fundamentals of STEM while working together to solve fun challenges and building models using LEGO^® DUPLO^® bricks.

As participants progress into Explore, children will take their background knowledge of STEM and put it into practice as they work in teams to design and build robots using the LEGO^® Education SPIKE Essential. 

Once they are ready to move into a competitive setting, they join Challenge and apply their STEM skills combined with critical thinking to work with a team, build a robot, and compete in an exciting, mission-based robotics game.”

The teams are given the same challenge and, with the help of their coaches, design, code, and create a LEGO robot that navigates the assignment of a robot game. The First Lego League challenges students to discover, explore, and apply skills from the STEM disciplines in a competition, which in return develops teamwork and confidence.