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.