2019 FLL
On November 10-11, Team 1967 co-hosted an FLL (First Lego League) qualifier with Intel. This year’s challenge was “City Shaper”: the goal was to design and build a better place to live and work while addressing challenges such as transportation, accessibility, and natural disasters.
At the FLL qualifier, the Janksters supported the event by managing concessions, demonstrating their 2018 robot, Lola, and assisting with the qualifier. The Janksters helped the qualifier run smoothly by resetting the field, queuing the games, inspecting the robots, DJ-ing, and taking photos. By running this qualifier, the Janksters got a better understanding of what it takes to run a qualifier. Third-year student, Ahlyssa Santillana ‘21, said, “I got a deeper insight into what the kids did. Since I never did FLL, it was interesting to see how they tackled challenges.” In addition to demonstrating Lola, the Janksters also allowed the children to test drive the robot. To encourage the middle school students to continue robotics throughout highschool by explaining the basic tasks an FRC robot performs, as well as explaining the main differences between FRC and FLL.
Along with running the events, three of the team members assisted and coached two FLL teams: The Puffing Pufferfish and Lego My Eggo. Bella Padget ‘20, a student who helped coach Lego My Eggo said, “It was a good experience to help coach the FLL team and watch them bond, despite the fact that they had lots of energy. It was also fun to watch the kids become more comfortable with each other and begin to engage more with their team.” Assisting Bella with Lego My Eggo is Calin Le ‘21, who stated that “The kids had a very fun time and thoroughly enjoyed it. They were able to learn a lot from their experiences and learn from other teams.”
Overall, Team 1967 used FLL as an opportunity to grow their leadership skills through coaching and assisting young kids. Not only did the Janksters help inspire children to learn more about STEM, but they themselves walked away with newfound experience through community outreach. Thank you so much for supporting the Janksters and don’t forget to follow @team1967 on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.