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Programs And Activities
Current programs and activities:
The current program sponsored by INSciTE Illinois is the FIRST LEGO
League. This is a program in which youth, ages 9 to 14, build and
program an autonomous robot to perform predefined challenge tasks. The
robots are about the size of a shoe-box and perform on a 4 x 8 ft
playing surface. The teams are also judged on skills they
have learned that prepare them to be successful in the world of science
and technology. The students are judged on the research presentation
they prepared for this year's topic, technical knowledge, and on
teamwork. Each year a challenge is defined by FIRST and relates
to a scientific or technology issue relevant to society. Some recent themes have been "Artic Impact", "City Sights", and
last year "Mission Mars".
Major achievements:
In 1999, there was a continuation of significant funding by
Motorola for organizational and school teams to participate in FIRST
LEGO League (FLL) and in tournaments in Illinois. This led to a
significant increase in participation and to the largest FLL tournament
in the nation. Over 120 teams (over 900 students) participated in
an exciting, high energy sporting event focused on kids. This was
also the first year for a national tournament sponsored by the
originating organization FIRST. The team from Illinois received
the first place award for performance.
In 2003, the emphasis for the state organization was to start
the process of moving away from almost total dependence on
Motorola. Volunteers were recruited and 11 regional tournaments
were organized and held from Champaign to Streator, and from Chicago to
Lake Forest in Illinois, all with very high marks from
participants. These qualifying tournaments sent 56 teams to the
state tournament. In spite of the lower funding (and no financial support
for teams) there was an increase in teams participating to over 170
this year (over 1,200 students). 2004 - 2008 have shown continual, exciting growth from many cities throughout Illinois as well.
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"Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results."
-John Dewey.
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