In a totally new initiative, Shellharbour’s City Library will be sending a children’s robotics team to the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) regional competition on 10 November.

A group of upper primary students, the ‘Shellharbour Space Eagles’, will be the first library team for the Illawarra to participate in this major competition.

The FLL is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) program that seeks to inspire the science and technology leaders of tomorrow.

It challenges kids to think like scientists and engineers, solve a real-world problem, build, test and program an autonomous robot and use LEGO and MINDSTORMS® technology to solve a set of missions in the Robot Game.

Another important part of the program is that the young participants work within the programs core values including teamwork, discovery, and professionalism.

To kick-start the program, Shellharbour City Libraries received a Grant from FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Australia and Google.

This grant provided the Shellharbour Space Eagles with a Mindstorms Kit, FLL challenge set and team registration. A practice competition table was expertly constructed by the Shellharbour Men’s Shed.

The team was formed from the students of the City Library Robo Club, a weekly robotics class offered in partnership with Project Bucephalus – another Wollongong FIRST team.

Since 2010, Project Bucephalus has inspired hundreds of FLL teams from youth groups, schools, and families, but the Shellharbour Space Eagles are the first library team.

Since mid-August the team has been preparing for the competition every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon at City Library, supported by parents, Project Bucephalus and library staff.

At the regional competition in Wollongong on 10 November, the Shellharbour Space Eagles will be giving it their best shot to make it to the NSW finals in late November and the national finals of FIRST LEGO League to be held in December.

Find out more about the Shellharbour City Robo Club at www.projectb.net.au/learn-robotics

For interviews and photos, contact: Kelli Wells 0448 361 008.