Posted: LEGO League is an exciting experience for intelligent young childeren of 5th to 8th grade. When I was mentoring the Section LEGO Storms who met twice a week, I learned a lot from them. Unfortunately, I cannot tell all of it in such a short amount of time, so I will just give a few highlights. This years competition was a climate connect. Building a LEGO NXT to compete with, the team was given stimulating situations were they had to work together to come to a suitable solution. Mentoring such a committed group was a privilege.
Climate connect was a challenge were the team had to identify a climate situation that has been a problem, is a problem, or could be a problem some day. Focusing their time on flooding, they came up with two creative inventions that could solve their dilemma. When they finished theorizing, they prototyped their inventions out of LEGOs. They found out that the portable bridge was already invented. The water tower filterd water and added minerals so that we can drink it. They were incredibly innovative. Unfortunately, there were more effective designs at the competition.
For the main game, the team constructed and tested an NXT robot. Before they could build it, they planned out all the missions and how they would run them. They found just a few. They focused on them. They finished strongly. Even though they did not compete with flying colors at the competition, they learned what it takes to be a team and to have fun.
Mentoring this team gave me an experience that I cannot get at home. Since I have no younger siblings, I do not have a chance to learn how to interact with and encourage younger kids than I. I learned a lot from other mentors as well about how I needed to interact with them. Growing closer to me and each other, they gave me a worthwhile reason to come back and work with them every meeting. As they grew closer, they could work as a team and encourage each other more than ever. I cannot say what an experience it was.
It is time to wrap it up. I have just given you a small amount of information, and this is only the beginning. Of all this, the most incredible thing was watching them work as a team. It is tough to work things out the way that they did, even for adults. They had discussion that sometimes resulted in an argument. Resolving them is what strengthened their ability to work as a team.
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