Turbulent Typhoons
About FLL
FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an international science and technology program of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), designed to develop students technological literacy and get kids excited about science and technology. Geared for ages 9-14 (up to 16 outside of the U.S. and Canada), FLL utilizes theme-based Challenges to engage kids in research, problem solving, and engineering. The cornerstones of the program are its Core Values, which emphasize contributions of others, friendly sportsmanship, learning, and community involvement. Every year the theme is different and relates to global problems. This year's topic is Global Climate Change. Some past year topics were nanotechnology and alternative energy. Each team is required to identify a problem in the theme and form a solution to the problem. More information on FLL can be found by following the appropriate links on the left side of every page or by asking us on the forum.
Research Challenge
Collapsing Mines: How Increasing Demand for Greener Technologies Affects Ohio's Coal Industry
As I said earlier, every team was required to identify a problem related to this year's topic, Global Climate Change. We wanted to make sure that our topic was unique so we came up with a problem that most might not have known. The research problem we choose to investigate during the Climate Connections season concerned job loss in Ohio due to cutbacks in coal mining. As the public is growing more aware of global climate problems, they are beginning to mandate the use of alternative green energies instead of using Ohio's coal. This will put many Ohioans out of jobs and Ohio will have severe economic impacts from this. After research into different aspects of the problem, we developed a solution suggesting an emphasis be placed on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education at all grade levels, to prepare future generations for work in next-generation energy production. To learn more about our research, see Collapsing Mines: How Increasing Demand for Greener Technologies Affects Ohio's Coal Industry.