FIRST Lego Robotics 2018

December 3rd, 2018

HORSHAM, PA

Hatboro-Horsham hosted its annual FIRST Lego robotics tournament. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a company that inspires young people with project-based, hands-on learning programs. FIRST introduces students to coding, programming, and engineering where students work together to solve a yearly robotics challenge.

Hatboro-Horsham has been involved with FIRST for several years. FIRST has four progression levels so that all grades can compete in this program.

• First Lego League Jr (FLL Jr)- Grades K-4
• First Lego League (FLL)- Grades 4-8
• First Tech Challenge (FTC)- Grades 7-12
• First Robotics Competition (FRC)- Grades 9-12

The FIRST Lego event held at Hatboro-Horsham High School had three of the groups (FLL Jr, FLL, and FTC) competing.

Hatboro-Horsham High School has been hosting FIRST Lego League for the past six years but added FTC into the event three years ago.

Hatboro-Horsham had a team represented from every school in the district to compete in the competition.

This event was the first qualifier of the Pennsylvania FIRST Tech challenge season.

Every year, FIRST has a theme for the season and this year that theme was space.

FLL Jr. challenge was called “Mission to Moon”. The students had to go out and interview people based on that theme. Then create a model out of legos along with a poster to present. Judges came around to review their work focusing on their creativity, and knowledge.

FLL challenge was called “Into Orbit”. Students built working robots out of Legos, then programmed them by writing code to complete a mission. They were given a limited amount of time to complete the mission and get as many points as possible.

FTC challenge was called “Rover Ruckus”. The point of their game was to build robots that start out in a cube then have to mine for minerals. Once the robot captured the minerals, it had to deliver them to a lander a specific area in the arena.

The students have been working on their projects since the end of September and finally got to show off their work.

There were 30 FCT teams, 24 FLL teams, and 17 FLL Jr teams.

To see robotic competition results click here.

For schools participating in the FRC division, their challenge will soon be released in January and will only have six weeks to design and build their robot. Hatboro-Horsham will host week 1 of their competitions on March 2nd and 3rd.