Press & Media
February 17, 2010
Long Island Children and their Robots Explore Innovative Solutions to Transform Transportation with FIRST LEGO League "Smart Move" Challenge
More than 500 area middle-school and elementary school children apply creativity and science to the study of transportation in the 2010 FIRST LEGO League Championship
(Melville, NY) - FIRST TM (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology, brings its biggest-ever annual FIRST LEGO(r) League (FLL) season to Long Island with the 2010 "Smart Move" Challenge. On February 28, at Longwood High School, eight weeks of research and design and two Qualifying Tournaments will culminate in the School-Business Partnerships of Long Island (SBPLI) FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournament, where 48 teams of children and mentors will demonstrate their problem-solving skills, creative thinking, teamwork, competitive play, sportsmanship, and sense of community.
This year's Challenge calls for teams of 9 to 14 year-old children to research and present their own creative solutions to one of today's most relevant topics: gaining efficiency in transportation systems. With missions including exploring how to plan efficient routes and sequences, climb steep ramps, respond to changing conditions, travel along narrow bridges with no guard rails, and endure crash tests, teams will have to program their robots to explore the growing questions around how to make transportation more efficient.
FIRST collaborated with Susan Zielinski at the Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society at the University of Michigan; David Doerr, a software development engineer at General Motors Corporation; and Chris Locke, a software engineer for Garmin, to create a theme and challenge missions reflective of one of the most relevant topics today.
The FLL competition is judged in four areas: project presentation; robot performance; technical design and programming of the robot; and teamwork. The highest honor will go to the team that best exemplifies the spirit and values of the program.
"'Smart Move' gives kids a hands-on, real world experience allowing them to use their imaginations and creativity in combination with science and technology, and lets them experience first-hand the very real and exhilarating struggle that even the top leaders and inventors in the world face," said Dean Kamen, FIRST founder.
The event also includes Junior FIRST LEGO League participants displaying their LEGO models and story boards. In its second year on Long Island, Junior FIRST LEGO League is geared towards 6- to 9-year-olds, introducing them to the wonders of science and technology through traditional, open-ended LEGO building with an age-appropriate Challenge based on the FIRST LEGO League theme.
FLL is an international program for 9 to 14 year-old children (10 to 16 outside the U.S. and Canada) created in a partnership between FIRST and The LEGO Group in 1998 based on their common belief that fun and learning go hand-in-hand, and that an inspired mind can accomplish anything. Each September, FIRST LEGO League announces the annual Challenge to teams, engaging them in authentic scientific research and hands-on robotics design. Using LEGO MINDSTORMS(r) technologies and LEGO play materials, children work alongside adult mentors to design, build, and program robots to complete missions based on real-world challenges. After eight intense weeks, the competition season culminates at high-energy, sports-like tournaments.
"FIRST LEGO League provides a fun and engaging experience for children around the world to become innovators and problem solvers on a very relevant and real topic," said Jens Maibom, vice president, LEGO Group. "Using a real-world issue to drive a process where children are in control provides them with a chance to take what they learn and apply it to their own lives, not only during this challenge, but to their future adventures and endeavors."
Currently in its eleventh year, FIRST LEGO League anticipates its biggest season ever, with more than 16,000 teams in 40 countries competing in hundreds of qualifying events and Championship Tournaments. More than 160,000 children will compete to win honors and recognition. Teams will also have the opportunity to participate at the FIRST LEGO League World Festival, to be held in conjunction with the FIRST Championship, April 15-17, 2010 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Long Island FLL Championship Tournament is being sponsored by SBPLI. "We are pleased to coordinate the Long Island FIRST LEGO League Tournament and the Jr. FIRST LEGO League Expo. They are an extension of the FIRST Robotics Competition," said Fred Breithut, Founder and Chairman, SBPLI. "Together these programs are opening a world of technology, science, and engineering to so many Long Island students, helping to build our high tech workforce of the future."
"The FIRST LEGO League and the Junior FIRST LEGO League gives these young children a chance to garner an interest in science and engineering at an early age," said William Hodrinsky, Director, SBPLI. "Judging by the FLL qualifying tournaments that we had on February 6-7 in which 75 teams participated, the children on Long Island have a genuine interest in science, technology and engineering."
