FIRST Lego League: Kick-off to 21st Century Learning @BayviewGlen

I was thrilled to be the keynote speaker at FIRST Lego League‘s Kick off event – hosted by my school at Bayview Glen – this past Saturday. The project mission this year is to: “create something that will help people learn better.”   FIRST Lego League is accomplishing this already by its very strucutre – it requires collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity! This organization has over 65 countries involved in it, and almost 500 teams competiting within its sanctioned events. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived on Saturday morning, but I was blown away by the energy, the sense of fun and nervousness that competition brings, and by the great energy of the over 350 coaches and competitors that were there.

I have been to a few of our student sessions, where they are researching, brainstorming and collaborting, and I have gotten a really strong sense of the goals and values of the FIRST Lego League. From this quick description, and from my (albeit) limited experience, I think that FIRST Lego League is a true embodiment of 21st Century Learning.

If you’re not familiar with it, here is a description from their website:

Contrary to popular belief, our coaches DO NOT need any technical experience. In FLL, the children do the work! And the work is programming an autonomous robot (using the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robot set) to score points on a thematic playing surface, creating an innovative solution to a problem as part of their project, all while being guided by the FLL Core Values. These three elements – the Robot Game, Project, and FLL Core Values – make up what we call our yearly Challenge. Like any other organized “sport”, teams also fundraise, create a team identity, and go on field trips. To see some of our teams in action, visit our YouTube Channel, or read about their experiences on our blog. 

In my keynote, I talked about the 4 C’s of contemporary learning: collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking. The requirements of FIRST Lego League align strongly with these skills and habits of mind. Youth are required to know their own strengths & the strengths of others. They are required to learn the language of Lego Robotics and the Core Values, and communicate these in their own language, behaviour and by what they can bring to the table. They have to research their project mission, and think critically about what learning means, and what it means to improve on it. This also requires creative thinking – looking at their experiences in a new way. What is school, and ultimately, what can it be? And they must work on three tasks. HERE is a link to all the resources that they provide – talk about RIGOR!

It has been a great experience diving into the BVG Lego community of dedicated students and parents and coaches – both of whom are Cohort 21 alum! Jesse Denison (@educatison) (’13) and Alexis Moliotsias (@msmo_a) (’14). Our team “Cntrl-Z” has been very successful in the past – creating real world solutions for real world problems. Here is their wesbite that tracks their journey and successes. They created an “Upright Light” that was recognized by the Toronto Fire Dep’t as a real world solution to candle safety in times of blackouts and power outages.  These are the very situations, criteria and scrutiny that we want for our students: authentic, real world and meaningful…oh yeah, and from my perspective it looks like a heck of a lot of fun!

Here is a link to my Keynote address in full, and the presentation that went along with it. It was met with some great reactions – particularly the link to Harry Potter! But one coach approached me afterwards and asked: ‘How do we teach children to think outside of the box?” My response: “Teach them what the box is…then start taking down the sides of it.” For example: tell them what a classroom is – they live and breathe these spaces, so we need to bring awareness to it (McLuhan: the medium is the message). Then we can start asking them what a classroom can be…

What a great way to spend a Saturday at “school“! If you want more information, or want to learn more about it, check out the links throughout this post, or leave a comment. I hope to hear from others on their Lego experiences!