Rowan hosts First LEGO League championship; students develop robots to solve water problem

Rowan University will host the Southern New Jersey First LEGO League (FFL) Championship on Saturday, March 3, from 11:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Chamberlain Student Center, off of Rt.322, Glassboro, New Jersey.

FLL is a national program designed to introduce younger students to STEM disciplines while solving real-world problems. With this year’s theme, hydrodynamics, students will learn about engineering concepts and practices to protect the world’s most precious liquid asset -- water.  Teams of middle school students will build and program robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. This year, teams will race their robots through a course of pumps, piping, faucets, and water treatment equipment. As part of the competition, each team also will research and explore challenges associated with hydrodynamics, identifying a problem within the human water cycle and presenting their solutions to improve this problem.  

The top 12 teams, including about 50 students, who qualified in preliminary events in South Jersey will compete at Rowan. Those teams are from Chesterfield, Moorestown, Bordentown, Franklinville, Swedesboro, Bridgeton, Woodbury Heights, Burlington, Voorhees, and Vineland. The team that wins the championship will move on to the national competition.