You can do a lot with Legos, but many don’t know we have a new club that is all about making robots with them.
Students at BGJHS take part in Mr. Staggs’s brand-new Lego robotics league. Students compete in competitions for the First Lego League, where thousands of people compete in challenges. It’s created for kids to apply STEM concepts by building complex robots with a basic yet iconic toy.
Mr. Staggs has been a big fan of robotics for a while, so it would only make sense for him to start his robotics league. The class focuses on their competitions themed around the ocean throughout the 24-25 school year, where different groups make different robots to complete “missions” to win. That means this is one of the only classes during the day that revolves around competitions outside of school. Mr. Staggs stated, “All of our classes, and everything we do in those classes is all to prepare for our tournaments and STLP.”
The most significant part of this new class is the fact that you make robots with Legos! Students in this class are divided into three groups, each group getting their own “spike block” to allow the Legos to move. Mr. Staggs remarked, “We use Lego robotics because Legos are a universal building block that a lot of kids are familiar with. I also think the coding side of it is easier for students to understand.”
The new robotic league has been extremely popular these past few years, with more than 679,000 people competing this year! There are 3,700 competitions per year that players can compete in. With Mr. Staggs having an interest in robotics, it would only make sense for him to spread this interest among others.
Students of Staggs robotics class are split into groups of 3, allowing them to collaborate and share creativity. Students in class complete missions similar to the competitions, allowing students to improve various skills they can show at their competitions. 8th grader Dax Allen mentioned, “I think it helps with creativity because we get to, like, build a robot but be creative with how it will win the competitions.” This group also has competitions coming up in January, February, and March.
Lego robotics is a fun class that anyone can join to have fun and learn how to code.