School children from around the East Midlands aged 9 up to A-Level (Aged 18) attended the event.
On 6th January 2017, five C1net members participated in the FIRST LEGO League at the University of Nottingham. FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL®) is a global science and technology competition with over 250,000 young people aged from 9 to 18 taking part each year. This is a global science and technology challenge for teams of students, to encourage an interest in real world issues and develop key skills that are crucial for their future careers. The students work together to explore a given topic and to design, build and program an autonomous LEGO robot to solve a series of missions.
https://firstlegoleague.theiet.org/
The team engaged with around 30 school pupils from the East Midlands area. Younger pupils were asked to build a bacteria from the set of Lego bricks by looking at the image on the card. The helpers explained to them the different parts of the bacteria and what they do.
They took home the message that not all bacteria are bad and that some are very helpful, they can be used to make biofuels, yoghurt and help digest food.
Older pupils were asked to build a plasmid following the instructions on the card. The helpers explained the different ‘parts’ to them. The focus of the message was what plasmids are and what they are used for.