Hayden Hardt-Zeman and Kirsten Springer. Gilpin County. The Space Chinchillas took a journey to space for an important mission, Mission Moon. This mission was to make space habitable for humans to breath and get around the space station. Lego League participants used teamwork to put it all together. They decided to take steps by voting and the majority vote won. The project was completed in about 10 weeks. This summer they will have more Lego League classes. Class information is listed below. 

CSU Extension has a long history of supporting Gilpin County youth in a variety of ways. One way has been to provide programming for the Parks & Recreation Department’s youth camp and afterschool programs. A 4H Youth Development Program was created with the purpose of bringing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programs to the Rec Center as well as to create other partnerships to service youth outside of the traditional 4H Club. This is where our current partnership with the Gilpin County Library and the FIRST Lego League & Jr League began. 

This fall our team, which has been to FLL Junior Expo at Alexander Dawson School for the past two years, will be starting with the next step using EV3 robots and competing in the FLL competition in the fall of 2019. The 2019/20 season theme is City Shapers and is in partnership with George Lucas and the Star Wars team. We will also be working with a new group of younger youth to develop another Jr League. We also have one or two youth who will be working toward the Tech Challenge Level this year.

What is FLL?

FIRST Lego League teams get to:

Research challenges facing today’s scientists.

Design, build, test and program robots using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® technology.

Apply real-world math and science concepts.

Learn critical thinking, team-building, and presentation skills. 

Participate in tournaments and celebrations.

Understand and practice Gracious Professionalism.

The cornerstones of the program are the FIRST Core Values: We express the FIRST philosophies of Gracious Professionalism and Cooperation through our Core Values:

Discovery: We explore new skills and ideas.

Innovation: We use creativity and persistence to solve problems.

Impact:  We apply what we learn to improve our world.

Inclusion: We respect each other and embrace our differences.

Teamwork: We are stronger when we work together.

Fun: We enjoy and celebrate what we do!

FIRST Expo is a noncompetitive showcase for:

FIRST LEGO League Jr grades 1-5  

FIRST offers annual robotics competitions in three divisions:

FIRST LEGO League for students in grades 4-8.

FIRST Tech Challenge for students in grades 7-12.

FIRST Robotics Challenge for students in grades 9-12.

For more information on these programs contact CSU Extension 4H STEM Program Associate, Kirsten Springer kspringer@colostate.edu or Deborah Benitez, Gilpin County Children’s Librarian, dbenitez@gilpincounty.org. Better yet drop by the library on a Thursday afternoon!

(Originally published in the May 23, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)