Imagine 200-300 fourth- through eighth-graders in one big gymnasium full of beeping and whirring robotic projects all created out of LEGO building blocks and electronics. For the past seven years, that’s been the scene at WSU’s Heskett Center as hordes of young students bring their best work to a daylong competition.

The colleges of education and engineering at Wichita State University will host the eighth annual LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Challenge from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Heskett Center gymnasium. An awards ceremony follows at 5 p.m. in 208 Hubbard Hall.

Teams of fourth- through eighth-grade students from across Kansas will complete mission challenges designed by College of Engineering students, and demonstrate what they have learned to an audience that includes professional engineers and educators, industry representatives, families, friends and members of the community. Oral presentations, table displays and notebooks require students to document and articulate what they learned and the process their team completed to prepare for the challenge. Sportsmanship and spirit are judged throughout the day to promote collaboration and teamwork.

The Mindstorms Challenge provides teachers an opportunity to showcase what they learned in WSU classes and workshops, and how they use robotics to teach science, technology, engineering and math concepts to their students. It also provides an environment where they can share and collaborate with other educators and professional engineers.

Twenty teams participated in the 2007 Mindstorms Challenge. Each team had at least one coach and between five-12 team members for a total of more than 200 students. Teams came from diverse Kansas communities, including Wichita, Cheney, Derby, Salina, Hutchinson and Colwich. Twenty-two teams have already registered to participate in this year’s event.

Many of the coaches who bring teams to the Mindstorms Challenge received training through robotics courses taught by WSU’s College of Education and received start-up equipment from funding provided by Boeing Charitable Trust and Spirit AeroSystems grants.

The Shocker Mindstorms Award is cumulative and given to the best overall team. But the process is more important than whether they win at the end of the day, say organizers. That’s why everyone will get a prize at some level.

For more information about LEGO Mindstorms Challenge at WSU, go to www.wichita.edu/shockermindstorms/. For more about LEGO’s national Mindstorms program, visit http://mindstorms.lego.com/.