OKEECHOBEE — On May 2, 2021, FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) Challenge Team 38851 competed at the South Florida FLL Regional Championship. The FLL team consists of three students from Okeechobee County. The team is a community team, meaning the team is not organized or sponsored by a school. This is the second year a team from Okeechobee County has participated in FIRST LEGO League and the first year we have been invited to compete internationally.

FIRST® LEGO® League is a program specifically for students in grades fourth through eighth in the FIRST series. Students must research a real-world problem such as food safety, recycling, energy, etc., and are challenged to develop a solution. They also must design, build, program a robot using LEGO® MINDSTORMS, then compete on a table-top playing field. These tournaments and the preparation beforehand teach students to experiment with solutions. As they experiment, they experience the engineering process of design/test/fail/repeat that will serve them in any area they pursue.

Over the past eight months, the team has encountered many obstacles. But each time they have met the challenge head-on. Because of their hard work and perseverance, our Okeechobee Team will represent the state of Florida and the United States at the Asian Pacific Open Championships. Congratulations Pug Weirdos!