Cooperation Between Local 4-H and YMCA Brings OskyBots To Area Youth
First Lego League OskyBots
The OskyBots are a FIRST Lego League (FLL) group consisting of 4th-7th graders who have spent the past month learning about and programming Lego robots. This group was made possible by a FLL grant from Rockwell-Collins that was received by Mahaska County 4-H. 4-H was very fortunate to be able to partner with the Mahaska County YMCA and the OskyBots were established.
Team members have been working with volunteer coaches to learn about Lego robotics programming and to prepare themselves for the Regional FLL Event. The Regional was held at Indian Hills Community College on Saturday, December 1. The team gathered on the Ottumwa campus to showcase their talents in robotics programming, teamwork, and professionalism. Thirty three teams competed in the Regional event, with the OskyBots coming in at twenty first in the Robot Challenge. They had great results for only practicing for one month before the competition and they have a lot to be proud of!
The 2013 FLL Challenge has been released and is titled, “Nature’s Fury”, where participants will learn about natural disasters. 2013 FLL Teams will master the actions of “Prepare. Respond. Recover.”. The OskyBots will continue to meet once per week to practice and continue to learn about robotics programming. Mahaska County FLL is open to any youth in 4th-8th grade, with 6th-8th graders being eligible to compete. If you are interested in becoming a member of FLL or if you are an adult and would like to volunteer, please contact Mahaska County 4-H at 673-5841 or the Mahaska County YMCA at 673-8411. More FLL teams will be organized if there is an interest. Grant applications for team funding are available in April, so we will need to know approximate team numbers this upcoming spring. The “Nature’s Fury” Challenge will officially be released in August of 2013 and the team(s) will begin practicing soon after the challenge release date.
Congratulations to all FLL OskyBots team members for a job well done and thank you to all of our volunteer coaches, this would not have been possible without your support and dedication!
