Kids invited to 'Mission Moon' open house Feb. 2 at Fermilab
On Saturday, Feb. 2, Fox Valley Robotics/Batavia Robotics, Fermilab, and FIRST will bring the seventh annual FIRST Lego League Jr. season to the Fox Valley with the 2019 "Mission Moon" open house.
The event will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Wilson Hall atrium, off Pine Street in Batavia. It will be followed by the awards ceremony from 3 to 4 p.m. Admission is free.
This year's open house features 24 teams of as many as six children per team, plus team coaches and mentors, involved with this year's topic "Mission Moon."
FIRST Lego League Jr. teams are tasked with researching and learning all about surviving on the moon - living there, eating and drinking, entertainment, and what problems could we face.
In the 2018-19 "Mission Moon Challenge," more than 45,000 children, age 6 to 10 across the world will look at space travel in a whole new way.
The grade-school students will exhibit projects and posters demonstrating their research about how humans may be able to exist on the moon and the problems that they may face with survival.
The open house is intended to give students an opportunity to present their research and celebrate the hard work they have done as a team, while at the same time, highlighting how living on the moon could be the next part of their lives. It is not a competition, so all the teams are celebrated.
"Mission Moon" gives 6- to 10-year old kids a hands-on, real world experience allowing them to use their imaginations and creativity in combination with science and technology, and lets them experience firsthand the very real and exhilarating struggles and successes that the world faces.
"This year's challenge project will inspire some of these kids to pursue careers in technology. We may be looking at the future generations of space explorers!," says Dee Karabowicz, manager of the Fox Valley Robotics LegoWolves Division which will have 12 teams participating at the open house.
The FIRST Lego League Jr. program and challenge are designed by the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) as part of the FIRST Challenges.
The FIRST Lego League Jr. is for children 6 to 10 years old to introduce them to basic design skills and a hands-on approach to science and technology through the familiarity and fun of Lego building.
Fox Valley Robotics and Batavia Robotics are the organizers of the open house.
To learn more, visit www.foxvalleyrobotics.com/flljrevent.
FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an international organization which creates robotics programs for kids of all ages. Visit www.firstinspires.org.
Batavia Robotics is a nonprofit organization which has been around the area since 2002. In 2007 to offer the program and incorporate kids from multiple communities, the name of Fox Valley Robotics was added. Today over two hundred kids participate in three divisions of robotics. The LegoWolves Division is for the first- to third-graders, the LegoDogs Division is for 4th-8thgrades, and the Coyotes Division is for eighth- to 12th-graders. For information about the season and the summer programs, visit www.bataviarobotics.com or www.foxvalleyrobotics.com.