[KINGS PARK, NEW YORK] [APRIL 28, 2022] –Contestants ages 9 to 14 took part in the annual FIRST^® LEGO^® League Challenge Long Island Tournament, which was sponsored by School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) and held remotely on March 13 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Team #23785 “Meteorites Squared” from Hicksville won the Champion’s Award. The top teams won by embodying the program’s Core Values of teamwork and mutual respect while achieving excellence and innovation in both a robot game and innovative project.

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 SPIKE^TM Prime or LEGO^® MINDSTORMS^® and create an innovative solution to a problem as part of their Innovation Project.

This year’s Challenge — CARGO CONNECT^SM — called for teams to reimagine our global transportation system and explore ways of improving how we access and deliver needed and desired goods, making all communities more connected.

Twenty-one teams took part in the Tournament. 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 Nomination	22112	Portledge Royal Panthers	Locust Valley
Global Innovation Award Nomination	6435	Fire Dragons	Rocky Point
Innovation Project 1st Place Winner	39029	TriTech **	Dix Hills
Innovation Project 2nd Finalist	2180	LJHS LE’GO Lions (Holborow)	Middle Island
Innovation Project 3rd Finalist	51732	Dragon Racers	Huntington
Innovation Project 4th Finalist	30052	Team 4×4	Glen Head
Robot Design 1st Place Winner	22112	Portledge Royal Panthers	Locust Valley
Robot Design 2nd Finalist	15794	Buckley Cyber Dogs	Roslyn
Robot Design 3rd Finalist	1087	Brainstormers	Bayport
Robot Design 4th Finalist	46635	Brickaneers Gold	Islip
Robot Performance 1st Place Winner	50946	Overpowered Spicy Robot	Syosset
Robot Performance 2nd Place	54838	Overpowered Chicken Nugget	Syosset
Robot Performance 3rd Place	1087	Brainstormers	Bayport
Robot Performance 4th Place	46635	Brickaneers Gold	Islip
Core Values 1st Place Winner	16174	Meteorites	Hicksville
Core Values 2nd Finalist	47463	Raptor Dactyls	East Islip
Core Values 3rd Finalist	54370	BRICKii	Stony Brook
Core Values 4th Finalist	50815	Brickaneers Duplo	Islip
Rising All-Star 1st Place Winner	53114	Robat	Jericho
Rising All-Star 2nd Finalist	43820	Robotic Lightning Kangaroos	Huntington
Rising All-Star 3rd Finalist	49289	Electric Eagles	Jericho
Engineering Excellence 1st Place Winner	37506	Microchip Cookies	Plainview
Engineering Excellence 2nd Finalist	2438	Camol Clan	Floral Park
Engineering Excellence 3rd Finalist	8085	Rocky Point Radical Robotix	Rocky Point
Champion’s Award 1st Place Winner *	23785	Meteorites Squared	Hicksville
Champion’s Award 2nd Finalist	6435	Fire Dragons ***	Rocky Point
Champion’s Award 3rd Finalist	53744	Imagination in a Nutshell	Jericho
Champion’s Award 4th Finalist	50946	Overpowered Spicy Robot	Syosset

* The Champions Award winner was invited to participate in the FIRST LEGO League Challenge World Festival at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas on April 20-23, 2022.

** This team has been invited to participate in the American Invitational Robotics Competition at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey on May 14.

*** This team has been invited to participate in the FIRST LEGO League Razorback Open Invitational at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Arkansas on May 19-22, 2022.

 

The Coach/Mentor Award went to four coaches. The 1^st Place Winner was Catherine Temps of Team #16174 “Meteorites” from Hicksville. Dave Savage from Team #48026 “Savage Bricks” from East Setauket was the 2^nd Finalist, and Shannen Delaney of Team #43820 “Robotic Lightning Kangaroos” from Huntington was the 3^rd Finalist. The 4^th Finalist was Paola Ragusa of Team #2438 “Camol Clan” from Floral Park.

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.