On Sunday, November 11, Tom Stoffregen, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology, gave an invited presentation to students in the MN FIRST LEGO League Jr., at the U of M’s Bell Museum Research Workshop. The workshop was held to prepare students in grades K-4 involved in the League for a robotics competition, in which they use LEGOs to make gizmos that address a given theme. This year’s theme is to create objects that address challenges to long-term spaceflight, such as travel to Mars.

The purpose of the event was to inspire the participants as they plan their entries. Stoffregen talked about control of human movement in weightlessness, and shared the presentation with Brad Holschuh, Ph.D., assistant professor of apparel design in the College of Design, who talked about spacesuits.

FIRST LEGO League in Minnesota (MN FLL) is part of a global robotics program that includes more than 255,000 kids in 88 countries. Teams collaborate to build and program an autonomous robot for a specific theme and compete in a regional event.