Please forward on to those interested in promoting engineering to young people!  

FIRST LEGO League tournament season is upon us.


I wanted to ensure that you knew that FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition 
of Science and Technology) has selected Transportation as this year's theme 
for the 2009 LEGO robotics competition. 


FIRST LEGO League is a high leverage education opportunity for 
youth. This year, there are an estimated 150,000 youth in US 
and in over 50 countries involved in FIRST LEGO League. 

In California, there are over 6,000 youth participating in 
FIRST LEGO League with almost half of these in Northern California.  

It is a great way to join in on the fun and excitement of science, 
technology and engineering and share this with our young people.


In the LEGO robotics competition, 9 to 14 year olds in a team 
of up to 10 members, build robots out of the LEGO robotic kits 
to perform a series of tasks related to a real world issue 
that directly demonstrates that technology can be used as 
a tool to solve problems of today. 

Prior year themes were on climate issues, energy issues, 
nanotechnology, and space exploration. 

The students acquire skills such as problem solving, time 
management, project management, critical thinking and 
teamwork: skills useful for them now,  necessary to their 
future and the future of  society. 

I wanted to ensure that you knew that the nonprofit,  FIRST 
(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), 
has selected Transportation topics as this year's theme for 
the 2009 LEGO robotics competition.


In this year’s transportation focused challenge, “Smart Move", 
the LEGO robot will solve challenges modeled using LEGO elements. 
There is also a research and presentation project in which the 
youth are expected to select and analyze a transportation-based 
issue, propose a solution, and share their results for high impact.


FIRST is a multinational non-profit organization founded in 1989 
by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter. 

Playing At Learning, the local partner is a SF Bay area-based 
501(c)(3)  nonprofit that provides the operational support of 
FIRST LEGO League and similar programs throughout Northern California.


We are  seeking tournament volunteers for events between November 
and January and would appreciate it if you could share this opportunity. 
We have a critical need for judges and referees for the many 
November FIRST LEGO League tournaments. 

Most tournaments are day long events  and there is just a small 
amount of prep involved in being a judge or referee.  
Good, self-paced training materials exist as well as support 
through video, conference calls and email.

Tournaments are fast moving, exciting and inspiring  to see so 
many young people excited about engineering  and science.  It is 
one you will remember and well worth your time!  It is hard to 
adequately describe.


All events are free and open to the public, so if you or others 
would like to learn more first before signing up to volunteer, 
feel free to drop by.  


Learn more about the tournament locations and volunteer roles 
at:   http://www.playingatlearning.org/FLL/volunteer.html

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact Jill or Mark 
with  Playing At Learning at   (510) 656-8664.


Hope to see you at one of the tournaments - all events rely on 
local volunteers to organize and provide this opportunity to 
celebrate young people's accomplishment related to engineering 
and science.