This sounds like a great positive downtown event featuring the kind of image Detroit should be projecting--smart kids doing cool things--while have great economic tourism impact. Win-win. I would have been here with my kid if he was still of that age.

The K-12 event includes competitions involving four different FIRST programs, which are segmented into different age brackets:


  • Grades K-4 compete in the Lego Jr. competition, building models and creating a poster depicting research.
  • Grades 4-8 compete in the Lego League competition, which involves building robots using Lego Mindstorms technology.
  • In the Tech challenge, grades 7-12 are tasked with designing, building, programing and operating robots to play a floor game in an alliance format.
  • In the Robotics competition, grades 7-12 use a robot — built and programmed during a six-week timeframe prior to the competition — to try to defeat a boss in an 8-bit video game.


The prize for top performers is bragging rights for winning one of the largest youth robotics competitions in the world.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...troit-showcase