Kids Compete At First Lego League Qualifier

The tournament had 38 teams compete in the Regional Qualifier.

FARGO , N.D. — Kids from grades 3-8 presented and battled their blocks inside the Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse at NDSU.

These talented technicians spent months working on their crafts for them to go head to head in missions using their Lego bots.

“I have been doing this since I was in 3rd grade and my mom I think she saw it on the internet and she started a team and then I joined and I have been doing it ever since,” 6th Grader, Aerna Daeuber said.

Getting things set for these contests take a lot of trial and error for things to work.

“I don’t know we learn how to program blocks in the program but really you learn as you go to see what works and what doesn’t,” Daeuber said.

This year’s theme for the tournament is, “City Shaper,” where teams designed, built and programmed LEGO-based robots to do various activities with objects.

For a lot of these engineers, getting to use Legos for their projects is a fun opportunity.

“I like Legos and I like research so I sort of thought this would be fun,” 4th Grader Liam said.
The kids also spent time working on finding a problem with a building or public area in their community and looked to find a solution.

“Well we went like two weeks of researching and kind of like packed it down into a PowerPoint,” Liam said.

This tournament is just the first step, as this is the first regional competition.
Those who move on to State will go on to Grand Forks and then Nationals in Chicago.

“It’s really fun it helps you work with people and it helps you build strategy and robotics skills, it builds a lot of skills,” Daeuber said.

No matter who wins or loses the kids say they have a blast building their crafts and getting to work together.

“It’s really stressful but if stuff goes well it’s rewarding,” Daeuber said.