Abstract
Our world faces critical issues that need to be addressed for a sustainable future. Energy and the environment are two such issues that are very important to us as participants of FIRST LEGO League (FLL). FLL has given us a great opportunity to learn by doing in a hands-on competition that focuses on a real-world problem related to the sciences. FLL teams are given two challenges in September each year: a robot challenge and a project challenge. The robot challenge includes building and programming a LEGO robot to solve a series of challenges on an obstacle course board. The project challenge involves identifying and researching a problem affecting our community and developing our own unique, sustainable innovative solution. This season the project challenge was to identify a problem with moving people, goods or information safely or efficiently in our community. We chose to study the efficiency of fuels. Our innovative solution is to use anhydrous ammonia as an alternative fuel, produced on site through a green process called Solid State Ammonia Synthesis powered by a green renewable energy resource. We have shared our project through community discussions, presentations to classes and groups, newspaper articles and mentoring other teams. FLL has allowed us the opportunity to study and propose sustainable solutions to problems that affect our community and has given us a chance to learn in a way not offered in most school settings.
