STEM and FIRST outreach are the dominant themes of The Green Machine’s summer. Lego Robotics has been popular no matter where we’ve set up, whether it’s been the Cedars of Edina Apartments; Girl Scout camp in Burnsville; at People Serving People, a Minneapolis homeless shelter, or at the Valley Crossing Community Kids Club in Woodbury. We’ve even seen our Lego curriculum for young people ages 5 – 14 being used this summer in Lego Robotics camps offered by Geek Squad in 26 cities (including Minneapolis) nationally!
What we’ve found, to our delight, is that everyone wants to – and can do – engineering. Our “all ages” groups have brought FIRST Lego League-style building to children ages 5 to 14. We have yet to encounter anyone not intrigued by the possibilities of what they can build with Lego – with and without building instructions. They’ve also liked learning about robotics, FIRST, and our team. And they especially love playing with Zeke, our 2014 robot. The goal is not only summertime fun but to connect these campers with FIRST no matter where they live and no matter which school they attend.