Campus

A LEGO leap for science

Science should always be such fun. This September, TU Delft joins hands with the international FIRST LEGO League, to create an army of young scientists.

For three months, the university’s Science Centre will host workshops to teach students from ages 9 to 16 how to create and work with robotics – using LEGO.

The FIRST LEGO League is a global initiative started in 1998 by toy makers LEGO and science and technology promoters FIRST. For the annual competition, tournaments are held across cities and countries, before finalists from top levels meet for the championship. They have over 20,000 teams in over 70 countries and are partnered by study organisations and centres around the world.

As the venue for the zonal final, the Science Centrewill work with children for 12 weeks to create four teams for the next level of the competition, the FLL Netherlannds finals. Following that, are the Benelux region finals, which will be hosted by the 3TU Stichting.

The Science Centre, which hosts the local finals of the FLL, will work with children for 12 weeks to create four teams for the competition.

Per the competition guidelines, the children have to design, build and test a robot that can perform several missions. The theme for the 2014-2015 season of the competition is World Class; Learning Unleashed. “The FLL changes the competitions each year, so we follow the format set by them. Every year students are given different assignments. Our goal is encourage technology and science in schools and that’s why we support initiatives such as this,” says Michael van der Meer, the head of the Science Centre.

During the workshops students learn how to program an autonomous robot, using the LEGO Mindstorm set. The robot then has to perform certain tasks, designed in a way to encourage children to understand how things function and can be made to function. According to the FLL website, their aim is to get children between 9 to 16 ‘interested in science and teach them valuable employment and life skills’.

The FLL is only one of the initiatives the centre is involved in. Through the year they host a number of workshops and information sessions for students. In 2013 19,368 students participated in workshops organised by TU Delft. “It is all part of the aim of the Science Centre itself. We want to show the general public what kind of research goes on at TU Delft, but also to support science education in primary and secondary schools,” adds Van der Meer.

The workshops will be held in Dutch starting September 7 and cost €160. 

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