A look inside 'FIRST LEGO League' as an Oak Creek Middle School team preps for tournaments

OAK CREEK, Wis. (CBS 58) -- There are 35,000 FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams globally. Oak Creek has eight middle school teams alone. This morning, CBS 58 joined the Catastrophic Crusaders as they prepped for their tournament in Mukwonago. 

"Their main goal is pretty much to get students more involved in STEM," said Anirudhaj Patteti, a high school senior in Oak Creek. Patteti is now a mentor to these middle schoolers. 

"FLL is where they work with these robots using simple blocks on the computer and with the simple click of a button," he said. 

Students work to create code and upload it on to the robot which then completes missions.

In 2020, One Oak Creek West Middle School team qualified for Nationals.

This weekend's competition will determine who goes to the State finals.

While students are learning programming skills, they're also judged on the impact they have on the community and problem solving. The Catastrophic Crusaders chose to focus on internet safety this year.