This past Sunday the LigerBots had a fun day in the sun, with bicycles and robots! We talked with many cyclists of all ages at our booth on the lawn of Newton City Hall during the Tour de Newton, an annual bicycling event at which families ride in groups around the entire city. Kids swarmed the robot, and before long we had a line of children waiting to drive the robot and catch the ball. We also had a chance to promote our upcoming FLL Info Night.

On Wednesday evening parents and kids joined the LigerBots at Newton North High School for our annual informational evening about how to start and maintain an FLL team. (FIRST LEGO League is a LEGO robotics program for kids age 10 to 14. FLL Jr. is a project-based program for kids between the ages of 6 and 10.)  LigerBots coaches and team members gave a slideshow and talk to explain FIRST and FLL to parents in a packed NNHS lecture hall. LigerBots sponsor Empow Studios sent two representatives, including the company’s founder, to speak about the Empow Studios FLL program.

Meanwhile, LigerBots team members kept the kids engaged in the hallway with demos and activities, including paper airplane construction, Snap Circuits, coloring, molding crayons, spaghetti-and-marshmallow tower construction, brush bots, and button making.

Joining us was Jr. FLL team Aqua Brick, with student members from Franklin Elementary School, whose great project and presentation helped generate parent interest in the FLL Jr. program.

The LigerBots were also proud to host the Day Dragons, an FLL team of students from Day Middle School whose hard work this year took them all the way to the FLL World Championship in Detroit. Our FLL Info Night two years ago was the spark that ignited their team. This year they helped bring FLL to life for the families at Info Night by demonstrating their robot on a 2017 FLL field.

The children were so engaged that they had to be wrestled away from our activities by their parents at the end of the evening. We had 21 parents express interest in finding, founding, or expanding an FLL or Jr. FLL team. There are already three new teams being formed! The LigerBots will be following their progress and lending a hand where we can.

If you are interested in FLL or Jr. FLL and want to get in on all the excitement, or have any questions, the presentation we gave can be found here. Feel free to contact us directly at [email protected], or visit our website for more information.