BILLINGS — On Saturday, Ben Steele Middle School hosted the Southeast Montana Regional FIRST LEGO League tournament.
It was a competition between 150 elementary and middle schoolers, in over 20 teams, all across the Southeastern region of Montana.
Montana FIRST LEGO League is a part of a larger national organization, which works to get kids involved in STEM before they enter adulthood.
"Robotics and automation are making its way into every field out there," said the tournament's organization and software developer, Jeremy Stricker on Saturday.
Competitors work in teams to tackle an issue impacting the community, and find solutions to that problem. This year's theme was oceans and rivers.
The students will show their presentation to judges before entering into the LEGO robotics portion of the competition.
The top 40% of winning teams in Saturday's competition will compete in the state tournament, which will be held at MSU in Bozeman on February 7th.
The winning Montana team will then compete nationally in Houston, Texas.
Stricker says FIRST LEGO League helps prepare youth in all aspects, from researching and writing, to interviewing and public speaking.
"It really is true that these kids can be out there going into the automation field, robotics field, and it's amazing how many different fields are being transformed right now by robotics. Whether it's manufacturing, whether it's medical surgery, things like that... So it really helps these kids prepare for that on a professional level," he said.
