This year’s “Challenge” is SUBMERGED, in which First Lego League teams will use creative thinking and LEGO® technology “to explore the layers of the ocean and bring their learnings and ideas to the surface as they ‘sea’ into the future.”

Students across numerous states connected with OR&R emergency response specialists to ask questions about challenges and shortcomings of current oil spill response tools and techniques. Students are gathering information in order to engineer new tools for potentially aiding and improving future clean-up efforts. Questions from curious students have ranged from “Do you use any robots to clean up oil spills,” to “Does anything good ever come from an oil spill?” Conversations have allowed staff to explain NOAA’s roles and responsibilities during an oil spill, environmental impacts from such disasters, and the potential for new innovations.

Conversations also allow OR&R to talk about different research that is being conducted with partners, like the Coastal Response Research Center at the University of New Hampshire and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s National Oil Spill Response and Renewable Energy Test Facility in Ohmsett, New Jersey.

While OR&R’s response to oil spills and other emergencies takes first priority, scientists are always interested in nurturing young talent in the STEM field—oil and chemical spill response, in particular—by supporting students, teams, and classes locally and regionally.