London Gatwick Airport in the UK has just hosted the Sussex and Surrey FIRST Lego League (FLL) tournament for the third consecutive year. The event sees teams of students from eight schools in the region compete to build Lego robots.
The FIRST Lego League is an international robotics-based competition. A collaboration between FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology), an organization that encourages children academically, and toy brand Lego, the league began in 1998 and today involves 30,000 teams of students all over the world, aged between nine and 16.
The Gatwick event took place in the airport’s North Terminal, inside the Sofitel Hotel, featuring 10 students from each school. Each had been tasked 10 weeks earlier with building a robot around an ‘Animal Allies’ theme, and then had to compete in a number of challenges on a thematic play surface. Reigate St Mary’s Prep and Choir School were selected by the judges as the overall winner, and will now move on to an international final to be held in Bath.
Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick’s COO, said, “Gatwick is proud to have once again hosted the regional FIRST Lego League tournament, and thanks all of the schools and their students for participating. The standard of entries was extremely high and we’re delighted to be helping inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers from our local community.”
Written by Chris Anderson