ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Young people from all over the Five State region converged upon Liberal earlier this month to take part in the annual First LEGO League competition hosted by Liberal Recreation.

The event is part of the FLL worldwide competition, and this year’s theme was “UNEARTHED.” Robotics Supervisor Michelle Webber said challenge teams did a project presentation, robot design and demonstrating FLL’s core values, with all of this taking place before the afternoon’s portion of the competition.

“That’s when the robot games start, and we have 15 missions on the table,” she said. “They have to program their robot to get as many done as possible in two and a half minutes.”

Webber said the recent competition went well, and with teams having a blast taking part, she said the day was a great one.

“Our two top teams have the possibility of moving on this year,” she said. “Our top team goes to Houston for the world championship, and our second place team has the chance to go to Boston for an invitational.”

Robotics has been a part of the lives of many youth for many years now, and Webber said the activity fits a need for many area children.

“They need an outlet for all of that creativity, and if they’re not big into sports or band or music, this gives them a chance to really show where their talents are, show a little bit of their genius,” she said. “I think robotics really does fit for a lot of our kids who have more of an engineering mind or a STEM mind.”

This was Webber’s second year overseeing the local competition, and she said she has learned a few things in her short time heading up the event.

“Last year went really well, but we did have some interesting mistakes that happened,” she said. “We needed some more tables and some little things that needed corrected on the spot. This year, I think I did better anticipating what could go wrong.”

Webber said a past team from Hugoton who could no longer participate in the event helped her with getting the Seward County Activity Center ready for the day’s events.

“They came back and did a huge amount of work for us,” she said. “They came and helped build tables, helped get us set. I think delegation and learning to ask those who maybe have more knowledge has really helped a lot this year.”

In addition to teams from across Southwest Kansas, the competition likewise saw teams from Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma. Webber said the event averages between 15 and 20 teams per challenge, and one group in particular saw a slight increase this year.

“This year, with our Explorer side, the younger kids, we actually have 18 teams, and that’s the most we’ve ever had,” she said.

Webber said the competition, as well as FLL and robotics in general, wakes up children’s minds, and if they have a talent and a passion for engineering, for programming, it opens the doors for them to look into computers for programming or to get more into robotics.

“With the way our world’s going, this is the future – robotics, programming, anything AI or computer generated,” she said. “Our kids are doing that programming and getting into that. This is where they’re going to find that first spark that keeps them interested and keeps them going.”

Webber said she was pleased with how the recent competition went, particularly with how teams decorated booths, and with youth already practicing in the morning for the afternoon challenges, she felt there was a great show in place for everyone.

As for the rest of 2026, Webber said she has plenty of other activities for robotics at Liberal Recreation.

“I have a boys day, LEGO team day coming up,” she said. “There’s a girl day coming up next month. We’ve got May 4 for ‘Star Wars,’ and with our open LEGO night, we’re open 4 to 6 Thursday evenings. For $2, the kids can play with LEGOs as much as they want. At 6, they leave the mess with me, and they go home.”