Young minds to use Legos to show how to recycle at Fermilab Feb. 6

Batavia, IL - Fox Valley Robotics/Batavia Robotics, Fermilab, and FIRST TM bring its fourth annual FIRST Lego League Jr season to the Fox Valley area with the 2016 "Waste Wise" open house at Fermilab from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6. An awards ceremony will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. in the atrium of Wilson Hall, off Pine Street in Batavia. Admission is free to this event which will show kids of all ages what robotics is about.

This year's open house features 20 teams of as many as six children per team, plus team coaches and mentors, involved with this year's topic "Waste Wise."

FIRST Lego League Jr. teams learn that throwing something in the trash is only the beginning. In the 2015-2016 Waste Wise Challenge, more than 34,500 children, age 6 to 9, from 18 countries look at trash in a whole new way. From reducing, to reusing, to recycling, and beyond, to find out what making trash really means.

The grade-schoolers will exhibit projects and posters demonstrating their research about recycling and what to do with all the trash that we create. 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 recycling is needed in today's world. It is not a competition, so all the teams are celebrated.

"Waste Wise" gives 6- to 9-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 struggle that the world faces in what to do with all the trash that is created.

The FLLJr 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 (FLLJr) is for children 6 to 9 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.

To learn more, visit www.foxvalleyrobotics.com/jrfllevent.

FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an international organization which creates robotics programs for kids of all ages. Visit www.usfirst.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, more than 200 kids participate in three divisions of robotics. The LegoWolves Division is for the first- to third-graders, the LegoDogs Division is for fourth to eighth grades, and the Coyotes Division is for eighth- to 12th-graders. For more information about the organization, the season, and the summer programs, visit www.bataviarobotics.com or www.foxvalleyrobotics.com.