Over 70 teams, aged 9-14, will showcase their skills at the Quad City FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Challenge this weekend.
This year marks the 15th year of the qualifying events here in the Quad Cities. On December 14 and 15, children across Iowa and Illinois will compete at the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline.
The event is organized by the Quad City Engineering & Science Council (QCESC) in partnership with For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST). FIRST is a global non-profit that prepares children pre-K through 12 for the future in robotics.
Tournament Director Pat Barnes works for John Deere and said FLL is the largest FIRST program and has grown in the Quad Cities throughout the years.
“This year, we’ve grown from two or three events to four events," Barnes said. "And so, we have four events supporting 73 teams from 26 communities in Iowa and Illinois.”
He said this is the first time two FLL qualifying events have taken place in Moline. In the first year, Barnes said there were only 13 teams and one event at the Putnam Museum in Davenport.
This year’s FLL challenge theme is Submerged, allowing students to explore the ocean and address real-world oceanic problems through their work. Each year, Barnes said participants must identify a problem, conduct research, and present their work to judges.
“What below the surface they can do to make healthier oceans, and often they even have prototypes where they come up with something and they show an example of something they built to show what it would look like," Barnes said.
Barnes said the program is actively accepting event volunteers with signup information found on the QCESC’s website.
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