Science Night Out (SNO) is one of the team’s biggest outreach events. It allows the LINKS team members to teach 3rd-6th graders through hands-on science activities. Not only are we making a new generation aware of how cool science can be, but we also use SNO as a recruiting tool which is why many of our members participated in SNO when they were young.

LRC a summer day-camp for students in rising 4th-8th grade looking to begin developing or improve their skills in FIRST LEGO League robotics. Over the course of one week, the campers will learn how to design, build, and program an EV3 robot to complete challenges from the real FIRST LEGO League challenge game. At the end of the week, the groups compete in a final tournament.

DeKalb Count contracts Fernbank LINKS to provide free FIRST LEGO League (FLL) training to all DeKalb county FLL teams, now more than 80 teams. LINKS holds 4 training sessions and 2 scrimmages per year. At training events, teams rotate through various stations and learn about the different aspects of FLL: sensors, game strategies, the judging criteria used, how to program the EV3 robot, etc. At the scrimmage, teams can try out their robot on our field as well as test their presentations at mock interviews and ask questions of the very same judges they will see at the tournament. This not only prepares the FLL teams but also prepares the LINKS team for the two FLL tournaments that we host.