Yesterday was an awesome day! As teams from all over the world fly into Houston to compete in either Junior FIRST LEGO League, FIRST LEGO League, FRC, or FTC we are able to witness the power of kids!
Most of the competitions did not start yesterday so that meant a lot of energy in the space as teams build up their pit area, connect with other teams, and make sure everything they have is working.
I spent a majority of my time in the Innovation Fair connecting with kids and adults about all things LEGO.
One of the amazing LEGO Engineers created the FRC Challenge in LEGO EV3 so we were able to watch kids have their minds blown when they realize what it is. Sharing with them how bluetooth works and how to build all sorts of things is so powerful. These kids are way smarter than I ever was at their age. Being here reminds me that we should never stop learning and pushing what we know.
We also brought in 600,000 white pieces for the free build area. This station is something that blew me away last year and even more so this year. Watching kids build some really intricate designs without instructions or manuals gets me excited. We have to allow our ideas to come alive and that is what these kids have done.
Check out more images in my photo album
And by far the coolest event of the day was revealing the new FLL and FLL Jr. mats and boards. I was super lucky to have been part of this event by hosting the FB Live which you can check out on the LEGO Education page
I wish I could describe the excitement around this event. We were packed with kids and adults to see the mat.
The ideas already being discussed about the challenges are really good. Who will be correct? We will find out come August!
As we worked to wrap up day 1 something happened that proved how gracious professionalism works. At the end of the day we had to tear apart all the white brick buildings and creations to allow for new builds the next day and for the build challenge we released.
This would have taken us easily over one hour to do this work by ourselves, but kids came and helped us knock this project down in under 20 minutes. It was a perfect examples of teamwork, collaboration, and gracious professionalism.
And this is just a few reasons why FIRST and LEGO Education are so valuable to helping educate our students.
Here is to another exciting day!
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