FIRST Lego League Regional Tournament in Newark

Lego robots battled it out at the Reese Center on Ohio State University, Newark campus Saturday.

24 teams from all over central Ohio rallied together to compete in the First Lego League Regional Tournament. Where they are immersed in science and technology challenges.

“This is a FLL competition. FLL stands for First Lego League. First is an non-profit organization that promotes stem education. They partnered with the Lego group to create this competition field that you see here. The teams are composed of kids ages 9 through 14. Their challenge is to build a robot that in 2 1/2 minutes can complete as missions as possible, to try to earn as many points as possible,” said Assistant Tournament Director, Cameron Richards.

First may be in the title but, the competition isn’t new to the area. Every year brings a unique idea to teach area students about real world issues.

“Each year FLL has a theme and it’s idea is to promote not only stem education but, also how you can use that education to better the world. This year the theme is Trash Trek, it’s all about dealing with trash and helping with recycling. All of the missions are trash themed. The teams also have to do a research project, dealing with a trash related problem and how they would solve that problem,” said Richards.

Richards said one of the most important core values in this competition is team work.