FIRST LEGO League Challenge is an international program for 9- to 16-year-old children (ages vary by country) created in a partnership between FIRST and the LEGO Group in 1998 to get children excited about science and technology — and teach them valuable career and life skills. Children work alongside adult Mentors to design, build, and program autonomous robots using LEGO® Education SPIKETM Prime or LEGO® MINDSTORMS® and create an innovative solution to a problem as part of their Innovation Project.
This year’s Challenge — RePLAYSM — called for teams to identify a problem related to people not being active enough, research the problem and design a new piece of technology or improve an existing one to help them solve that problem.
Twenty-one teams took part in the Championship. The competition is judged in three areas: Innovation Project; Robot Design, and Core Values, which embody aspects of teamwork and good sportsmanship. Top robot game scores are also honored. The award winners were as follows:
|
Team Award |
Team # |
Team Name |
Town |
|
Global Innovation Award |
38503 |
Techno Queens |
Jericho |
|
Innovation Project Winner |
51252 |
Smarties |
Hicksville |
|
Innovation Project Finalist |
22112 |
Portledge Royal Panthers |
Locust Valley |
|
Robot Design Winner |
6435 |
Fire Dragons |
Rocky Point |
|
Robot Design Finalist |
50946 |
Overpowered Spicy Robot |
Syosset |
|
Robot Performance 1st Place |
16174 |
Meteorites |
Hicksville |
|
Robot Performance 2nd Place |
45172 |
Meteorites Cubed |
Hicksville |
|
Core Values Winner |
16174 |
Meteorites |
Hicksville |
|
Core Values Finalist |
38503 |
Techno Queens |
Jericho |
|
Engineering Excellence |
38653 |
Imagination in a Nutshell II |
Jericho |
|
Champion’s* |
45172 |
Meteorites Cubed |
Hicksville |
* The Champions Award winner is invited to participate in the FIRST LEGO League Virtual Open International in Greece on June 24-27, 2021.
This year’s Volunteer of the Year Award went to Rick Ramhap. The Coach/Mentor Award went to two coaches: Bryan Eichenauer of Team #45172 “Meteorites Cubed” from Hicksville and Maria Zografos of Team #22112 “The Royal Panthers” from Locust Valley.
For more information on SBPLI, visit https://www.sbpli-lifirst.org.
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About FIRST®
Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies and more than $50 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST® Robotics Competition for students in Grades 9-12; FIRST® Tech Challenge for Grades 7-12; and FIRST® LEGO® League for Grades PreK-8. Gracious Professionalism® is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.firstinspires.org
About FIRST® LEGO League
FIRST LEGO League introduces science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to children ages 4-16 (ages vary by country) through fun, exciting hands-on learning. FIRST LEGO League participants gain real-world problem-solving experiences through a guided, global robotics program, helping today’s students and teachers build a better future together. In FIRST LEGO League, students engage in hands-on STEM experiences, building confidence, growing their knowledge and developing habits of learning. FIRST LEGO League’s three divisions inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics.
FIRST LEGO League Discover – PreK- Grade 1:
For children ages 4-6, this playful introductory STEM program ignites their natural curiosity and builds their habits of learning with hands-on activities in the classroom and at home using LEGO® Duplo bricks.
FIRST LEGO League Explore – Grades 2-4:
In Explore, teams of students ages 6-10 focus on the fundamentals of engineering as they explore real-world problems, learn to design and code and create unique solutions made with LEGO bricks and powered by LEGO Education WeDo 2.0.
FIRST LEGO League Challenge – Grades 4-8:
Friendly competition is at the heart of Challenge, as teams of students ages 9-16* engage in research, problem-solving, coding and engineering – building and programming a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of a robot game. As part of Challenge, teams also participate in a research project to identify and solve a relevant real-world problem.
About School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc.
School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) DBA FIRST® Long Island is a fully volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses. His goal was to provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce, which resulted in the formation of over 100 partnerships. In 1999, SBPLI brought the FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) to Long Island, which featured just eight FIRST® Robotics Competition high school teams. Since then, the Long Island Regional FIRST® Robotics Competition has grown to two events with over 80 teams competing each year. SBPLI also hosts Long Island’s annual FIRST® LEGO League Qualifying and Championship Tournaments and the FIRST® LEGO League Junior Expos, in which over 2,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. In 2016, SBPLI added the FIRST® Tech Challenge to its roster of programs. For more information about the programs, or to learn how to become a sponsor, visit www.sbpli-lifirst.org.
