Over 250 Students to Test Robotics Programming Skills at FLL 2015

Coderina, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that works to promote STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) education is bringing FIRST® LEGO® League, an exciting and fun global robotics program that ignites an enthusiasm for discovery, science, and technology in kids ages 9 to 16.

The session that will hold on Saturday Mrach 14, 2015 in Lagos, Olajide Ajayi, director, Coderina/FLL Nigeria, reiterated that technologies offer opportunities to stimulate growth, increase innovation and enable individuals and institutions to interact more productively within the global economy.

However, realizing the possibilities require the need to put technology at the core and also as a part of a mix of productive changes and supporting capabilities.

Ajayi said that matching resources by resourcefulness and combining such efforts with initiatives on the part of educators, government and the third sector in the quest to build capacity for our future creative leaders, has become even more essential.

According to him, “Come March 14th & 21st, 2015 at the University of Lagos and Abuja respectively, 280 students from public and private schools, after-school and neighbourhood groups around the North-Central and South-West will participate in the inaugural FLL regional championships”.

“The tournaments”, the director said, “are a culmination of activities carried out on the World Class challenge (the theme for the 2014/2015 season). In the 2014 FLL World Class Challenge, 265,000 children from 80 countries will re-design how we gather knowledge and skills in the 21st century. Teams will teach adults about the ways that kids need and want to learn”.

FIRST® LEGO® League, he further explained, is an Educational partnership between FIRST® and the LEGO® Group.

“It is a program for a team (comprising of 2-10) of children from ages 9 to 16 with a different challenge/theme issued annually. It has three (3) components comprising of Project, Robot Game and Core Values.

“In the project, teams research a real-life issue related to the theme of the year, create or proffer a new and innovative solution, then present this information (using different presentation models and props) during a timed presentation to the judges. This is followed up by a timed question and answer period.

“The robot game deals with robot design, build and programming to complete a set of missions on a thematic table-top playing surface.

“Core Values – the FLL Core Values are the cornerstones of the FLL program. They are among the fundamental elements that distinguish FLL from other programs of its kind. By embracing the Core Values, participants learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.

Such values inculcated on the students were to invoke the thoughts as “We are a team. We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors. We know our coaches and mentors do not have all the answers; we learn together. We honour the spirit of friendly competition. What we discover is more important than what we win. We share our experiences with others. We display Gracious Professionalism® and Coopertition® in everything we do and We have FUN!

 Ajayi added that the program offers immense benefits to participating schools and students.

 “It provides schools with a great opportunity to introduce technology into the curriculum to help sharpen students’ digital numeracy skills and also for teachers to get some good training in modern teaching and mentoring techniques.

Using the yearly Challenges, FLL entices kids to think like scientists and engineers; provides fun, creative, hands-on learning experience; teaches kids to experiment and overcome obstacles; builds self-esteem and confidence; inspires kids to participate in science and technology; kids develop life skills such as communication, project, resources and time management and it also offers students unlimited opportunities to test their wits against those of their peers around the world and prepares them to compete favourably in the future within the global knowledge economy.

The Director said that they have a strong focus on capacity building for youths in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa and engage with private and public companies, government agencies and NGOs.

Source: Nigeria Communications Week