Robots Made of LEGO Will Compete at McKendree on July 20
Madison, Monroe and St. Clair County Students to Build Robots at Summer Camp
Lebanon, Ill. — Robots made of LEGO®--designed, built and programmed by local eight
to 14-year olds—will compete at the FIRST® LEGO League (FLL) summer camp, hosted by
McKendree University from July 16 to 20.
FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” The
FLL camp introduces younger students to engineering challenges by building small,
LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a themed playing surface. Students use their
imagination, critical thinking and problem solving skills to build a robot out of
LEGO pieces, explained Dr. Jim Feher, professor of computing at McKendree University. They then program it to complete a mission and compete against
other robots.
Fifty-five local elementary and middle-school students from Clinton, Madison, Monroe
and St. Clair counties will participate, assisted by 14 coaches and mentors. Of the
nine teams registered, four are made up of home-schooled students from Troy, O'Fallon,
Collinsville and Belleville. The other teams are from Holy Trinity Catholic School,
Fairview Heights; Albers Elementary, Germantown; Governor French Academy, Belleville;
and Columbia, Ill.
The public is welcome to watch the robots compete on Friday, July 20, the final day
of camp. The action will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the lobby of the Hettenhausen
Center for the Arts on the McKendree campus. Awards will be presented at 1 p.m.
Teams participating in the summer camp will be prepared to compete at the FLL Challenge
tournament at McKendree on Nov. 18.
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