Salve Regina hosting “FIRST LEGO League” tournament

Teens from across the state will test their engineering, science and creative skills by using robots and LEGOs to develop solutions to a natural disaster scenario during the “Nature’s Fury” FIRST LEGO League state qualifying tournament hosted by Salve Regina Sunday, Dec. 8.

About 20 teams are entered in the competition, which will run from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the O’Hare Academic Center. The event is free and open to the public.

In the “Project” phase, teams will select a community that could experience a natural disaster, identify a specific problem that happens when a natural disaster occurs and create an innovative solution to help people prepare, stay safe or rebuild. At the end of the exercise, teams will share their problem and solution with others.

The “Robot” phase will take place on a specifically designed table where teams will score points by using their robots to accomplish a variety of “missions” that arise in a community during the course of a natural disaster.

At the end of the competition, several awards will recognize teams for robotic design and performance, overall project approach and success, and exhibition of core values.

FIRST LEGO League Rhode Island and Robotics Park is managed by Rhode Island School of the Future, which serves about 500 students on 64 teams throughout the state. Teams design, build and program a robot to score points on a game field. They also complete a project that introduces them to different branches of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning and careers.