For the 10th year running, ASL was home to the north London regional competition of the FIRST Lego League (FLL) on Saturday, 1 December. Teams from across the UK and France traveled to One Waverley Place to show off their robots, teamwork skills and research projects, focused around this year’s theme of ‘Into Orbit.’ Together, they explored issues surrounding long-term space travel.

ASL brought nine teams to the competition, each consisting of up to 10 middle school students. Each team was coached and mentored by members of the high school robotics team, many of whom participated in FLL years ago. “FLL is a great way for younger students interested in engineering and STEM to get their start in robotics,” commented FLL mentor and HS robotics co-director Liz Allen. “They learn to work as a team and take on challenges, such as design and programming, scientific research and developing a professional presentation.”

For FLL competitions, all teams are judged and scored using a standardized rubric, which focuses on the teams’ research projects, robot design and demonstration of the FLL core values—discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork and fun. The final measure of their competition success is their score on the competition board, achieved by completing missions with their robots on the day.

ASL team Guardians of the Ga1axy found success in the robot game, scoring the highest number of points for the day—ultimately, securing them the runners-up trophy for the competition! The team will continue to compete in the national competition, which takes place early in 2019. 

Congratulations to the overall tournament champions—Caldicott Apollo from Caldicott School! We look forward to seeing you again at the competition next year.