WolfPack Regional Qualifying Tournament

press release: Nearly 400 budding engineers in grades four to eight will flex their creative muscles and aptitude for developing solutions to real-world problems at this year’s FIRST LEGO League (FLL) tournament to be held Sunday, Nov. 18, at the Madison College Truax campus. The WolfPack Regional qualifying tournament is free and open to the public. Team judging begins at 8:45 a.m. with opening ceremonies slated for noon. The first round of the always exciting robot competition kicks off at 12:30 p.m.

      FLL Teams will also share their research project findings throughout the day. As part of the global FLL 2018-2019 “Into Orbit” Challenge, more than 280,000 children, ages 9 to 16, from nearly 100 countries were challenged to identify physical or social problems faced by humans during long duration space exploration within our Sun’s solar system and propose innovative solutions.

      Nineteen teams of children ages 6 - 10 will also be on hand for the FIRST LEGO League Jr. “Mission Moon” Expo. This program captures the curiosity of young children and directs it towards the wonders of science and technology.

      “Madison College and its STEM Center are proud to support FIRST LEGO League and FIRST LEGO League Jr. because the problems of tomorrow require the students of today to start working on solutions,” says Kevin Mirus, Director, STEM Center. “The technical, critical thinking, and problem solving skills these students sharpen now, combined with communication, collaboration, and core values skills inherent in the competition will place these students on a path to provide truly inspiring solutions in the future.”

      Sponsored by FIRST – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – as well as local sponsors Madison College and BadgerBOTS Robotics Corporation, the Madison tournament is one of 13 qualifying tournaments in Wisconsin. The top FLL teams will advance to sectional qualifiers with hopes of competing in the Wisconsin State Championship on February 23, 2019 at Lakeshore Technical College in Cleveland, Wis.

      To learn more about FIRST LEGO League visit www.firstinspires.org.