Long Island Teams Receive Numerous Awards at School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc.’s FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournament

(Kings Park, New York) — Following eight weeks of research and design and two days of participation in the Qualifying Tournaments, 40 teams from elementary and middle schools across Long Island demonstrated their problem-solving skills, creative thinking, teamwork, competitive play and sportsmanship at the 9^th Annual Long Island FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League Tournament, “SENIOR SOLUTIONS^SM Challenge,” that took place on March 3 at Longwood High School in Middle Island. The event was sponsored by School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) and the Longwood Central School District.

In the Senior Solutions Challenge, teams partnered with senior citizens, held conversations with them about their struggles, and created solutions as to how these setbacks can be improved. Upon completion, teams shared their solutions to their senior teammates’ problems.

The following teams received these awards: 

The Champion’s Award recognizes a team that embodies the FLL experience by fully embracing the core values of FIRST while achieving excellence and innovation in both the robot game and the project. Both award winners will be invited to participate in a higher level of competition — one will be invited to the World Festival on April 24-27 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri and the other will be asked to participate in the FLL US Open on May 17-19 in LEGOland in Carlsbad, California. (Both are invitation-only.)

Additional sponsors included Central Islip Public Schools; Brookhaven National Laboratory; FIRST; Sideboard Computers; Farmingdale State College; The Law Office of Jeffrey Stern; Lisa Cohen; Andrew Margolin; the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District; Sir Speedy of Plainview; and Robert Woods of LEGO Education.

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^® 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.

Janet Anderson, Development Council Member, SBPLI, said: “We are pleased to coordinate the Long Island FIRST LEGO League Tournament. Together with the FIRST Robotics Competition at the high school level, 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 School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, visit www.sbpli.org.

###

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 Competition to Long Island, in which eight high school teams participated. Since then, the Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition has grown to 50 teams competing each year. SBPLI also hosts Long Island’s annual FIRST LEGO League Qualifying and Championship Tournaments and the Junior FIRST LEGO League Expo, in which approximately 1,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. For more information, visit www.sbpli.org.

ABOUT FIRST^TM

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST^TM (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 the support of many of the world’s most well-known companies, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge for high-school students, FIRST LEGO^® League for children 9-14 years old, and Junior FIRSTLEGO League for 6 to 9 year-olds. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.

ABOUT THE LEGO GROUP

LEGO Systems Inc. (LSI) is the Americas (North America and Latin America) division of The LEGO Group, 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