Young Innovators Society Hosts Solon Tournament

Editor's Note: This information was submitted by the Young Innovators' Society.

The Young Innovators’ Society will host a tournament on December 15, 2012 at the Orchard Middle School. Registration for teams begins at 7 a.m., however, only the robot portions of the competition will be available for public viewing which begins after 12 pm.

Young students, grades 9 – 14, showcase their team work skills in three areas, robotics, research on a senior solutions topic and core values which shows how they work together as a team and with others as well. This year the Junior FLL, ages 5 – 9 will also showcase their projects. As well as FTC, First Technical Challenge, for students ages 14 – 18, who will demonstrate their sophisticated robots.

The students’ research began in September when FIRST released the Senior Solutions challenge internationally.  This year, the teams each select a concern for Senior Citizens and work to discover an innovative solution.  Teams also compete in a robotics game, which requires them to design and build a Lego robot to complete specified missions. The third team requirement challenges them to solve a team problem without their coach, and present their work on the core values of gracious professionalism, teamwork, and discovery.  

In the spring of 2010 the MIT Alumni Club of Northeast Ohio, led by Nadine Otterman, helped inspire and form ten Lego League teams in Solon.  The coaches and parents of those original ten teams founded the Young Innovators’ Society, (YIS) a 501(c)(3) organization  in January 2011.  YIS’ mission is to inspire students to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and to become gracious, professional leaders. 

The meeting to form teams is held in early spring.  More information can be found at www.solonstem.org