Skyline Gila River Hosts FIRST Lego League Qualifier
To foster STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education among Native American youth, Skyline Gila River hosted a FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League (FLL) Qualifier robotics competition, tailored to Native American students on Dec. 14.
The event, a first for the school, featured 16 teams from in and around the Community including: Casa Blanca Community School, Skyline Gila River, St. Peter Indian Mission School, and the Boys & Girls Club of the Gila River Indian Community, all competing for a chance to advance to the state championship.
FLL is a global robotics program that introduces STEM to youth through hands-on learning with real-world problem solving.
Native American communities have historically been underrepresented in STEM fields, facing challenges such as limited access to resources and educational opportunities. Recognizing the need to address this gap, Skyline Gila River partnered with organizations like the I Rise Foundation and local STEM advocates.
The I Rise Foundation is a non-profit that provides STEM, athletic, and art programs to youth in Hispanic and Native American communities. Alberto Esparza, is the STEM teacher for Skyline Gila River and founder of the I Rise Foundation.
“I enjoy the staff, I enjoy the kids,” said Esparza. “My goal is to teach, bring more STEM opportunities to Skyline, get more kids to consider engineering careers, because it starts here. First Lego League is the beginning of a career in engineering.”
The FLL qualifier event brought together students, families, and volunteers. Each team was given a practice round and three competing rounds to preform autonomous robotic missions to be completed within minutes.
“It is a best of three, so whatever their highest round of all three tournament rounds, that’s the score that counts towards their game missions. But this regional tournament has three different components,” said Matt Lewis with the I Rise Foundation.
“It has a research component, a game mission component, and a judge interview component. Each of those is scored a little bit differently and are valued in a different percentage way, so they cannot necessarily be the highest scorer on the game missions and still win this whole tournament if they do well on their research and their judge interview.”