LEGO Tournament at ACTC is December 12 13 | ACTC

    LEGO Tournament at ACTC is December 12 13

    More than 200 youth will participate in the FIRST LEGO League Regional Tournament December hosted by Ashland Community and Technical College on December 12 and 13.

    This is the second year that ACTC has hosted this tournament for FIRST LEGO teams in Northeastern Kentucky. Twenty-six teams have entered this year, up from 12 teams last year, and the top seven teams will advance to the state level.

    I think the schools and the students are excited about FIRST LEGO because its teaching STEM in a hands-on way that requires creativity, critical thinking and teamwork, Its putting knowledge into action! said Karen Coburn, ACTC Director of Workforce Solutions and LEGO tournament coordinator.

    Ashland will be represented by teams from Charles Russell, Crabbe, Hager, Oakview and Poage Elementary Schools, the Ashland Public School Access program, Holy Family School and Verity Middle School. Boyd County School System teams are from Boyd County Middle School and Catlettsburg, Cannonsburg and Ponderosa Elementary Schools. Other teams are from Carter County and Greenup County 4-H Clubs, Wurtland Elementary School, Wurtland Middle School and Raceland-Worthington High School.

    FIRST LEGO is a robotics program designed to get youth ages nine to 14 excited about science and technology. Founded in 1989, the non-profit organization now has over 20,000 teams in more than 70 countries. Teams work on projects that include building robots and designing solutions to real-world problems.

    This years competition topic is WORLD CLASS Learning Unleashed. Teams composed of up to 10 childrenare challenged to come up with innovative solutions to gathering and teaching knowledge and skills in the 21st century. During the competition, teams will build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS to solve a set of missions. They will also choose and solve a real-world question on the topic.

    ACTC is hosting the tournament to provide skill building opportunities for area youth in science technology, engineer and math as well as in teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving.

    Free and open to the public, the tournament will be held at the Technology Drive Campus on Friday, Dec. 12 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 13, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information, contact Karen Coburn, or email: karen.coburn@kctcs.edu.