KATH.TV & KSCT.TV - NBC for Southeast Alaska

5th Annual Juneau Robot Jamboree is this weekend
Published: 12/08/2011 13:40:00

VIDEO: This coming Saturday will see a very interesting event at Centennial Hall; it's a Robot Jamboree in where teams of kids design, build and program a robot to perform problem solving tasks in real world scenarios. (Image: Mikko Wilson / KATH-TV)

This coming Saturday will see a very interesting event at Centennial Hall; it's a Robot Jamboree in where teams of kids design, build and program a robot to perform problem solving tasks in real world scenarios. 19 teams from 6 different Southeast communities will compete in the all day event. We spoke with Rebecca Parks, the Event Coordinator, to learn more;

"It's our 5th Annual Juneau Robot Jamboree so it's the Southeast qualifier for the First Lego League; it's one of eight qualifier tournaments in the State this year where kids can compete in this First Lego League event to make it to the State championships which is in Anchorage in January. So every year the First Lego League which is the sports like competition comes up with a different real world theme, and they work with professionals around the country and around the world to figure out one of the major problems facing research and development in which they will throw it out to kids, see what they can come up with. So this year they decided on food safety and kids all around the world are working on identifying a problem related to food safety in their community, figuring out some kind of solution for it, and then sharing it with people to see whether or not it was something that would work and what would go into making it happen. You can see our AmeriCorps volunteers working on our field setup, the Lego models, which are the missions that the robot has to do, the robot goes through sort of an obstacle course, they're all tied into food safety, so there's a sink where you want to deposit bacteria and viruses, there's a table where you need to deliver groceries safely, and the main thing there is that Lego's, the robot are the hook they're teaching really valuable problem solving and technology skills that kids are going to be able to use in whatever career they go into, whatever future they have. "

The event runs all day Saturday from 9 to 5 at Centennial Hall, but the best time to watch is from 1 to 3 during the robot matches, so come on out and cheer on your favorite team.

http://www.jedc.org/summer-lego-robotics.php

By: Rik Pruett - rik@kath.tv

It's not just TV when it features you and your community