Lego League challenges students to accept ‘No Limits’ to creativity
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This year’s challenge was “No Limits” and the event was the culmination of eight weeks of research and design by students and mentors with the goal of helping those with physical limitations to more easily perform everyday tasks that most of us take for granted.
About 65 children participated on five teams from Warren County and one from Huntsville, Ala.
“It can be a school-sponsored or a community-sponsored team,” said judging advisor Sheri Denning. “It doesn’t have to be through the school system. We have three teams that are completely through the school system, one team that’s completely home schooled, and the other is a mixture of home schooled and a school that didn’t have a team.”
Dr. Nick Gawel, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s Education Committee says the event is a wonderful chance for students to participate in another kind of competition.
“It gives them the opportunity to learn how to solve real-world problems,” Gawel said. “Letting them compete while doing some fun stuff.”
Gawel says the competition takes on all the trappings of a sporting event, complete with the requisite spectators and team supporters.
“Lego is a sport for the mind,” he said. “You hear the cheering. You hear the screaming. The kids are working as a team. You’re teaching them teamwork.”
Ken Hunter, who actually helped bring Lego League to Tennessee, was at the event and had good things to say about Warren County’s participation. Hunter also pointed out Warren County will have a major presence at the state tournament in Cookeville.
“We’ll have 42 teams at Tennessee Tech in December and five of them will be from Warren County,” Hunter said.
The Lego League is really about the kids, and it was pretty obvious they viewed the event as a fun and rewarding way to learn and exercise their minds, as demonstrated by 13-year-old WCMS team member Casey Solomon.
“I wanted to go into Lego League because I want to become a scientist some day,” said Solomon. “I enjoy learning how to be a builder and to program the robot and Lego League helps me learn how to do that.”