Using FIRST LEGO League to enhance engineering education and to increase the pool of future engineering students (work in progress)

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an international initiative to encourage students aged 9-14 to pursue careers in technological fields. In its four years of existence, the competition has grown dramatically. During the Fall 2001 semester, several Michigan Technological University students served as mentors for local FLL teams. This paper presents details about the national FIRST LEGO League program, and statistics from a survey of FLL coaches in Minnesota are summarized to shed light on the current state of the program. Michigan Tech´s FLL mentorship program is described along with the desired outcomes and summarized assessment results. The paper then presents several issues Universities must consider if they would like to begin an FLL mentorship program. Finally, preliminary conclusions are drawn based on the first year of the Michigan Tech program.