Terrific Techbots, Robogators, and Blue Angels battle it out at SCC LegoLeague event

Blue Angels prepare for battle

Text and photos from SCC

Middle- and elementary-age students from across Western Washington gathered at Shoreline Community College, Jan. 17-18, 2015 for the First Lego League Western Washington Semifinal Tournament.

First Lego League is a robotic competition and sponsored in Washington by Washington First Robotics, organized to engage young people in science and technology. The semifinal event at Shoreline was one of two in Western Washington with the other in Lacey, Wash. A team from The Evergreen School in Shoreline, The Electric Gladiators, participated in the event.

BattleBot

Shoreline is well-known for its science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs. The college hosts a number of STEM-focused events during the year, including the Shoreline STEM Festival, the Shoreline Math Olympiad, Project Biotech summer camp and others.

RoboGator focuses on the program

Participants in First Lego League have three primary activities that culminate in a competition with other teams at a regional tournament:

    Build and program a small robot to accomplish challenges,

    Investigate a research topic then prepare a presentation

    Build a team

About 30 percent of the teams at the semifinal tournaments will advance to the Western Washington State FLL Championship tournament on Jan. 31, 2015 at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash.