Long Island Children Set to Participate in the FIRST LEGO League and Junior FLL Tournament at Longwood High School

[Kings Park, NY] — School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) and the Longwood Central School District will present the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League (FLL) Championship Tournament and the Junior FLL Expo on March 4 at Longwood High School, located at 100 Longwood Road in Middle Island. Both events begin at 9 a.m.

FLL students will take part in the FOOD FACTOR® Challenge. In the FOOD FACTOR Challenge, teams will build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT to solve a set of food safety missions as well as research, develop, and share their innovative solutions to improve the world’s current food preparation processes.

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, LEGO League announces the annual Challenge to teams, engaging them in authentic scientific research and hands-on robotics design. Using LEGO MINDSTORMS 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.

“Like every season’s Challenge, the details of the Robot Game are related to the theme,” said Jacob Kragh, President, LEGO Education. “In FOOD FACTOR, robots are tasked with the safe transportation and preparation of food, exploring pest control, food temperatures, and pollution as they navigate from the various starting points of our food to the place where it is consumed.”


Meanwhile, Jr. FLL participants will take part in the Snack Attack Challenge. In the Snack Attack Challenge, students will take a “hands on” approach to the topic of food safety by exploring how proper preparation and storage can help keep us healthy. Teams will learn about simple machines as they build a model made of LEGO elements with a motorized moving part, and will create a team Show-Me Poster to represent their Snack Attack findings.

Focused on building an interest in science and engineering in children ages 6-9, Junior FIRST LEGO League is a hands-on program designed to capture young children’s inherent curiosity and direct it toward discovering the possibilities of improving the world around them. Just like FLL, this program features a real-world challenge, to be solved by research, critical thinking and imagination. Guided by adult coaches and the Jr. FLL Core Values, students work with LEGO elements and moving parts to build ideas and concepts and present them for review. Each yearly Challenge has two parts: the LEGO Model and the Show-Me Poster. Working in teams of two to six children and guided by at least one adult coach, teams work to complete the Challenge.
Currently in its 13th year, FIRST LEGO League anticipates its biggest season ever, with more than 200,000 children in 61 countries competing in hundreds of Qualifying Tournaments and Championship Tournaments in order 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 on April 26-28 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. In addition, approximately 2,600 teams are expected to participate in Junior FIRST LEGO League this season.

“The FIRST LEGO League and the Junior FIRST LEGO League gives these young children a chance to develop an interest in science and engineering at an early age,” said Janet Anderson, FLL and Jr. FLL Director, SBPLI. “Judging by the FLL qualifying tournaments that we had on January 28-29 in which 70 teams participated, the children on Long Island have found a passion for science, technology and engineering.”

For a list of the area schools and youth organizations with teams participating in the “FOOD FACTOR” Challenge, see the attached page. In the event of inclement weather, the FLL Championships and the Jr. FLL Expo will be rescheduled for Sunday, March 11. For more information, visit www.sbpli-lifirst.org.


PARTICIPATING TEAMS

Team # Name of Team Town

5 Peaced Together Bayport

43 Rockbots East Rockaway

279 Saxton Rockin’ Robotics Patchogue

401 Betapobots Plainview-Old Bethpage

469 Lions Lawrence

658 The St. Dominators Oyster Bay

739 Robotic Frogs Carle Place

774 Da Chowda Heads Locust Valley

775 Kung Food Fighters Locust Valley

777 Roboteers Locust Valley

778 Baybots Locust Valley

782 Sweeney Llamas Locust Valley

859 Congo Bots Port Washington

1349 Robi-wan Kenobi Massapequa

1489 R.I.C.E. Krispies Southold

3252 Teach Me How To LEGO Baldwin

3270 Let Me Think Huntington Station

3307 WMS Bulldogs Hewlett-Woodmere

3438 RoboPhantoms Bayport

3707 Longwood Lions Green Middle Island

3853 The Eating Machine Oyster Bay

4452 MiniBaybots Hampton Bays

4774 Full Metal Alchemist Merrick

5317 Girl Scouts of Nassau County Catastrophic Moves Merrick

5318 Girl Scouts of Nassau County LEGO Chicks Hicksville

5319 Girl Scouts of Nassau County LEGOtronettes Hicksville

5320 Girl Scouts of Nassau County Think It Link It Glen Head

5321 Girl Scouts of Nassau County Merrick Masters:) Merrick

6124 Viking B.Y.T.E.S. Smithtown

6254 Brick Heads Floral Park

6398 Team Chiron Riverhead

6433 Girl Scouts of Nassau County Seaford Supernovas Seaford

8155 Girl Scouts of Suffolk County Low’s Angels Commack

8867 Awesome AHAPers Dix Hills

9514 Girl Scouts of Nassau County Digital Darlings Oceanside

9519 Girl Scouts of Nassau County Zion Innovators Elmont

11781 Copiague Robotics Copiague

12164 Radical Robotix Rocky Point

12886 RoboFood Nassau County

13160 Nerd Alert Oceanside

13685 New Kids On The Block Medford

13889 Lions Middle Island

School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) was founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses that would provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce. Over 100 partnerships have been formed. In 1999, SBPLI brought the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics program to Long Island, where eight high school teams participated. Since then, the FIRST robotics program has grown to 50 teams, with over 2,300 students participating in FIRST Robotics and LEGO League programs on Long Island each year. The 2012 FIRST Robotics Competition will be held at Hofstra University on March 29-31, 2012.

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 three out of every five Fortune 500 companies and more than $12 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC® ) and FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC® ) for high-school students, FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL® ) for 9 to 14-year-olds, (9 to 16-year-olds outside the U.S. and Canada) and Junior FIRST® LEGO® League (Jr.FLL™) for 6 to 9-year-olds. 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.usfirst.org. To learn more about the “Body Forward™” Challenge, go to www.FIRSTLEGOLeague.org. View the April, 2010 FLL World Festival Photo Gallery.



ABOUT THE LEGO GROUP

The LEGO Group is a privately-held firm based in Billund, Denmark. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of children's creative and imaginative abilities through high-quality, creatively educational play materials, and its employees are guided by the motto adopted in the 1930s by founder Ole Kirk Christiansen: "Only the best is good enough." For more information, visit www.LEGO.com.



FIRST®, the FIRST® logo, FIRST® Robotics Competition, FRC®, FIRST® Tech Challenge, and FTC® are registered trademarks, and Gracious Professionalism™ is a common law trademark, of the United States Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST®). LEGO® and MINDSTORMS® are registered trademarks of The LEGO Group. FIRST® LEGO® League, FLL®, Junior FIRST® LEGO® League, Jr.FLL™, and Body Forward™ are jointly held trademarks of FIRST and The LEGO Group. ©2010 FIRST and The LEGO Group. All rights reserved.

Hank Russell, Public Relations Director
The Public Relations and Marketing Group
156 North Ocean Avenue
Patchogue, NY 11772
(631) 207-1057
hrussell@theprmg.com

This release was published on openPR.