BCD First Lego League Competition

Through an anonymous parent grant, Boulder Country Day School (BCD) is partnering with the I Have a Dream Foundation of Boulder County to form a combined First Lego League team. The collaboration brings together technology and STEM with BCD’s goal of inspiring students to reach their full potential.

During an eight-week period, two teams composed of BCD students and Dreamers ages 9-14 work together to solve a problem in preparation for the Regional Qualifier Tournament to be held on Saturday, Nov. 12 at Monarch High School in Louisville. The tournament is an all-day event with approximately 24 teams competing to see who gets the golden tickets to advance to the State Tournament held sometime in January or February.

According to Coach Phil Mayhoffer, it is up to the students to build the robot, make decisions and engage in research. His role is to keep the students on track and help them understand the problem so that they can create the solution.

Through First Lego League, participants learn engineering and robotics programming skills and research, as well as pubic speaking skills. A cornerstone value of the program is Coopertition®. “Even though you are trying to get a higher score than any other team, you are expected to cooperate with other teams,” Mayhoffer said. “If your robot is missing a piece, another team might give you that piece if they have a spare.”

Through this process, team members begin to see the contribution that each person is making. “Each member can bring their valuable experiences and at the same time value everyone else’s experience, in a way that will help them see an existing problem that affects everyone. And how we can come together with our differences to create a solution that will be beneficial for all,” he added.