TTU Hosting 19th FIRST LEGO Competition Saturday

Hundreds of grade-school students will visit Tennessee Tech this weekend for the FIRST LEGO League’s 19th Annual East Tennessee Championship Tournament.

Associate Professor of General and Basic Engineering Dr. Kris Craven said the annual event allows students to have hands-on engineering experience at an early age.

“They’ll get to see Tennessee Tech’s campus, some of them for the first time,” Craven said. “We’ll get to show them a little bit about what it’s like to be in college and hopefully that might get some of them interested in coming here to Tech as students. But it will also further their STEM educational background and hopefully we’ll get a few of them interested in engineering as well.”

FIRST means “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”.  The program was founded by Dean Kamen and the LEGO Company in 1998 as a way to engage children in playful and meaningful learning in the worlds of science and technology.

Students entered into Saturday’s competition range from grades 4-8 and will compete in design and functionality contests. The students will also present their findings and what they learned through the competition.

“[The competition] includes a robot game and a design research project, as well as a design judging competition,” Craven said. “They also get judged on how they follow the FIRST core values and their teamwork.”

Craven said the event has a great impact on Tennessee Tech and the students who participate as many of the 70 volunteers helping with the competition are former participants.

“As a faculty member, I think it’s fantastic,” Craven said. “We are now seeing students who are now Tennessee Tech students coming, volunteering, and participating even as referee assistants because they were here as a student when they were in grade school. It’s been very important for the University.”

The opening ceremony for the competition will take place at 9 a.m. in the Memorial Gym on the Tennessee Tech’s campus. The main robot game event will conclude by 3 p.m. with closing ceremonies beginning at 4:30 p.m.