This December, Natrona County School District #1 hosted the
FIRST Lego League Challenge Wyoming Championship once more. Wyoming School-University Partnership met with Cyndee Guthmiller, who
serves as the program facilitator for the robotics program at NCSD #1 as well as the
FIRST partner for Wyoming, to learn about this long-standing Wyoming opportunity.
The
FIRST program (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an international program
that started in Manchester, New Hampshire. The robotics program operates with technology
challenges in mind so that students are building their understanding of science and
technology while developing critical and creative thinking skills. The FIRST program
highlights a group of core values which include discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion,
and teamwork. Each year the program has a theme among all its partners which the students
will address to a group of judges as part of their science and technology challenge.
The program is split up based on grade level and includes differing expectations of
what needs done based on which group the team is part of. This robotics program has
been in Casper, Wyoming for about fifteen years and has continued to grow in terms
of the number of teams appearing from all across the state.
On December 4th, 2021, two of the program groupings held their state
challenges. The first group was the Kindergarten through third-grade students who
participate in the FIRST Lego League Junior Expo. The second group was the fourth
through eighth-grade-students who participate in the FIRST Lego League Wyoming State
Championship. The theme for this year was cargo connects where students explored how
materials are transported, sorted, and delivered. For their robotics challenges, they
needed to build a LEGO robot that could carry materials around an obstacle course.
Then, the team would discuss with judges how they believe technology and science can
be used to assist in the problems related to cargo transportation. This year was a
bit different from previous years as the robotics challenge was held in person at
the Ford Center in Casper, but teams met with judges over Zoom to discuss their cargo
connection solutions. In total, 36 teams from across the state were present to showcase
their appreciation for this program and compete with their knowledge and skills.
Cyndee Guthmiller did mention what makes this program different than
some other robotics/technology programs that she has seen. One of the main pieces
that she sees from year to year is gracious professionalism wherein teams are willing
to support one another if problems arise with their LEGO robotic creation. They are
more than happy to give advice before the challenge to ensure other teams are able
to compete at their best and to operate with great integrity in the work that they
are doing. In addition, the students are asked to discuss solutions to large-scale
problems; this requires a great deal of time, research, and critical thinking. Lastly,
she mentions that students are expected to build new creations from year to year so
that they are advancing their skills and are able to build upon new information learned.
She has appreciated that Introduction to Computer Science is now a requirement so
that every student has some informational background to build upon before beginning
in the FIRST Lego League Wyoming State Championship.
The FIRST Tech Challenge Wyoming State Championship, which is available
for seventh to twelfth graders, will be held on February 19th and 20th, 2022. They
are continually looking for volunteers to assist with the judging or event details
and would encourage anyone to get involved as no computer science background is required
to be a volunteer. For more information on this program or if you are interested in
volunteering, please contact Cyndee Guthmiller at
cyndee235@myncsd.org.
