KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A nearly $70,000 grant from First National is helping remove barriers so all Kansas City area students can participate in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-related activities.
The "FIRST LEGO League Challenge" encourages elementary and middle school students to explore real-world problems and develop innovative solutions.
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The Kansas City Public Schools district hosted the competition at the former site of Troost Elementary in Kansas City, Missouri, on Friday.
Christina Chandler is the program delivery partner for FIRST LEGO Programs with the KC Stem Alliance. She grew up going to Troost Elementary.
“This kind of thing didn’t exist when I was in school,” Chandler said.
Now, Chandler and the KC Stem Alliance are giving the opportunity to students in KCPS.
Chandler said the students designed and programmed robots to complete specific missions on a table playing field.
KCPS said the students also tackled some real-world issues such as food safety, recycling and energy in their projects.
Friday's competition was a qualifying tournament where winning teams will now compete at upcoming city-wide championships.
“We know that with STEM careers, computer science, our engineers, and physicians, the diversity is not there, so programs like this not only prepare students, but it puts the idea in their heads that, 'I can be an innovator, I can be a problem solver, I can work on robots,'" Chandler said. "And it gives them the introductory skills to be engaged in those activities."
Jose Ecosta, Abdirizak Abdirahman and Jose Velazquez are sixth graders at Whittier Elementary in KCPS.
They talked abut their experience competing in the competition.
"Mostly, he created the robot. I built this, but we added some extensions," the trio said. "This is motor C, so when it goes down, it can smack it down and will be able to spin; we did that three times, so that’s 30 points total. It feels good because we’ve been working on this for so long.”
Chandler said the event will help shape future talent in STEM.
“These are the people who are going to solve the problems we don’t even know will exist yet,” Chandler said.
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