Judges Sought for Lego Tournament

Ashland Community and Technical Collegewill host a FIRST LEGO League Regional Tournament Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Technology Drive Campus. This is the only Regional Tournament held in the FIVCO area.

Area residents are invited to help with the tournament as project judges, robot game referees or competition volunteers. Lego knowledge is not required, and training for judges and volunteers will be held in November.

This tournament is an amazing opportunity for youth in our area, said Karen Coburn, ACTC Manager of External Education Programs. More than 20,000 teams in over 70 countries are competing this year, and we know that our elementary and middle school students will benefit from their experience with project planning and construction.

FIRST LEGO is a robotics program designed to get youth ages nine to 14 excited about science and technology and help them build employment and life skills. Twelve teams have registered for the tournament which will showcase projects that include building robots from Lego components.

Each year the competition focus is on finding solutions to a real-world problem. This years competition topic is Natures Fury, and First Lego teams are challenged to come up with innovative solutions to help deal with the effects of natural disasters such as storms, floods and earthquakes.

The tournament includes a robot game, the project and demonstration of core values. The robot game will use a robot that was designed and constructed by the team to deal with the aftermath of a particular natural disaster.

An ACTC challenge grant program established by an anonymous donor earlier this year provided start-up money for ten new teams, and those teams will be participating in the tournament.

For more information on volunteering or the tournament, contact Coburn at 606.326.2129 or email: karen.coburn@kctcs.edu.