Through the 2010 Body Forward Challenge, 9 to 16 year olds will explore the cutting-edge world of Biomedical Engineering to discover innovative ways to repair injuries, overcome genetic predispositions, and maximise the body’s potential, with the intended purpose of leading happier and healthier lives.
Registration for the 2010 challenge opens on 26th April 2010 on the First Hand Technology website www.firsthandtechnology.org.uk.
It will be held in Edinburgh in December 2010 in the Informatics Forum at The University of Edinburgh. Register your school for the tournament by emailing schools@inf.ed.ac.uk or visit the website to find out more.
FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) is an exciting and innovative STEM Challenge for teams of young people, created by the FIRST® foundation (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and the community arm of the LEGO® Company. At least 15,000 teams in over 50 countries around the world are expected to participate in the 2010 Body Forward challenge.
FLL is operated in the UK and Ireland by the not for profit company First Hand Technology whose aim is to encourage interest and STEM subjects through practical projects related to real world issues.
How does the challenge work?
Participating teams in the UK and Ireland have 8-10 weeks from the launch in September to prepare for one of the regional final events. Teams comprise of up to ten children, aged between 9 and 16 years. Teams will:
Programme a robot to complete tasks using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® technology.
Research and prepare a presentation on the year’s theme.
The challenge encourages a cross curricular approach using Programming and Control, Design and Technology, Maths, Web Research, PowerPoint, Strategic Thinking and Teamwork to achieve the aims of the challenge.
Winners of Regional tournaments will go through to the UK and Ireland FLL National Final where they compete for a place at the World Festival in St Louis, USA.
What happens on tournament day?
During the course of the tournament day teams will participate in the Robot Performance Challenge, present a Research Project, and be judged on the quality of their Robot Design and Teamwork.
The Champion’s Award is given to the team with the highest overall score from each of the four equally weighted sections, each of which has an individual award winner.
Robot Performance – awarded to the winner of the robot challenge. For the robot performance itself there are three attempts to have a go on the robot challenge table, each lasting 2½ minutes. There are a number of different challenges on the table, ranging from low scoring easier ones to high scoring but more difficult ones.
Research Project – awarded to the team whose Research Presentation demonstrates an in-depth understanding of the issues involved. Presentations are limited to five minutes followed by a five minute question and answer with the judges. Teams can be as creative as they wish in their delivery method, some examples of which are song and dance, video and news reports.
Robot Design – awarded to the team that demonstrates innovative robot design and programming. This technical judging usually takes place through a ten minute question and answer on the robot, how it was put together and how the programme works.
Teamwork – awarded to the team that demonstrates partnership with team members and respect for fellow teams. Judging may be completed through a question and answer session, observations throughout the day, or even a specific teamwork task.
For more information please visit the First Hand Technology website www.firsthandtechnology.org.uk
