Press & Media
March 5, 2010
Long Island Teams Receive Numerous Awards at SBPLI – LI FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournament
More than 500 Elementary and Middle School Students
Make a "Smart Move"
Members of the East Rockaway "Rockbots" - Team #2948 prepare to program
their robot for the course at the February 28 Long Island LEGO League
Tournament. Five hundred students from 48 teams participated in the event.
(Melville, New York) - Following eight weeks of research and design, 48 teams from elementary and middle schools across Long Island demonstrated their problem-solving skills, creative thinking, teamwork, competitive play and sportsmanship at this year's Long Island FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League Tournament, "Smart Move," that took place on Sunday, February 28 at Longwood High School in Middle Island. This year marked the sixth year of the tournament on Long Island which was sponsored by the School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI).
This year, 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: how we can transform our system of transportation.
The following teams received these awards (please note there was a tie for second place in Robot Performance):
Champion's Award:
Team 2948 - East Rockaway - Rockbots
Robot Design:
1st Place: Team 9171 - Locust Valley - Dust Bunnies
2nd Place: Team 6878 - Bellport MS Robotics Club - Panthers
Programming Award:
1st Place: Team 1039 - Massapequa - Chief Chargers
2nd Place: Team 2941 - Stony Brook - Island Bots
Research Quality Award:
Team 3682 - Girl Scouts of Nassau County (GSNC) - Ice Breakers
Innovative Solution Award:
Team
199 - Floral Park - Sewanhaka Cobras
Creative Presentation Award:
Team
8080 - GSNC - Catastrophic Moves
Robot Performance Award:
1st Place: Team 2941 - Stony Brook - Island Bots
2nd Place (tie): Team 1090 - Bayport - Peaced Together
2nd Place (tie): Team 3642 - Girl Scouts of Nassau County (GSNC) - LEGO Chicks
Teamwork Award:
1st Place: Team 8779 - Copiague - Copiague Journey
2nd Place: Team 5360 - Manhasset - Fill In The Blanks
Rising Star Award:
Team
1090 - Bayport - Peaced Together
Gracious Professionalism Award:
Team
7745 - Girl Scouts of Nassau County (GSNC) - LEGO Starz
Judge's Award:
Team
10359 - Locust Valley - Green Lightning
Team Spirit Award:
Team
3628 - Sayville - Knights
In addition to the team awards, Dave Meyer, Coach, Port Washington Congobots - Team #27, was named the Long Island FLL 2010 Volunteer of the Year. Mr. Meyer has been involved with FLL for the past six years.
Founded by inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST was created to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. First LEGO League is an international program for 9- to 14-year-old children 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 so brilliantly captures the natural curiosity and creativity of youth, and combines it with real-world issues and research and teamwork activities that put children in a position of identifying and creating innovative solutions to big problems," said Jens Maibom, vice president, LEGO Group. "In this manner, FIRST LEGO League inspires children around the world to realize the power of their creative thinking skills in making a real difference, which naturally makes them feel good and motivates them to continue learning by doing."
Fred Breithut, founder and chairman of School-Business Partnership of Long Island said: "We are pleased to coordinate the Long Island FIRST LEGO League Tournament. It is an extension of the FIRST Robotics Competition. 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."
For more information about the School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, contact (631) 692-2962 or visit www.sbpli-lifirst.org.
