Long Island Children Apply Research and Robotics to Explore How to Improve Quality of Life for Senior Citizens during FIRST LEGO League Championship and Junior FLL Expo

[Kings Park, NY] — On Sunday, March 3, from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 5:00 p.m., eight weeks of research and design will culminate in the FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League (FLL) Long Island Championship Tournament, where 42 teams of children and coaches will demonstrate their problem-solving skills, creative thinking, teamwork, competitive play, sportsmanship, and sense of community. The Championship Tournament will take place at LongwoodHigh School, located at 100 Longwood Road in Middle Island. The event is being sponsored by School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) and the Longwood Central School District.

Four hundred middle-school children from Long Island will compete in this year’s Championship Tournament. On February 2-3, a qualifying tournament was held at Central Islip High School in which approximately 85 teams competed for an opportunity to advance to the championship tournament.

This year’s Senior Solutions Challenge calls for teams of 9- to 14-year-old children to focus on solving challenges that senior citizens face. Teams will partner with seniors, hold conversations with them about their struggles, and together create solutions as to how these problems can be improved. Upon completion, teams will come together and share the discussed solutions to their senior teammates’ problems. This activity will connect young students and the elderly together to help ensure that a stronger bond within the community is created.

The FLL competition is judged in four areas: project presentation; robot performance; technical design and programming of the robot; and teamwork, with a consideration of the FLL Core Values. The highest honor will go to the team does well in all four areas and best exemplifies the spirit and values of the program.

The Championship Tournament will coincide with the Junior FIRST LEGO League’s (Jr. FLL) Expo, which will take place at the same day and location from 9 a.m. to noon. In the Junior FIRST LEGO League’s SUPER SENIORS^SM Challenge, children ages 6 to 9 will learn about the challenges some seniors may have getting around, keeping in touch with friends and family or staying active and fit. They will learn about senior citizens and the changes they have experienced in their lifetime; research one change the senior experienced and find out what experts are doing to make life better or easier for seniors; and learn about simple machines as they build a model made of LEGO elements with a motorized moving part and create a team Show-Me Poster to represent their findings.

Focused on building an interest in science and engineering, 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 worked to complete the Challenge.

“The FIRST LEGO League and the Junior FIRST LEGO League give these young children a chance to garner an interest in science and engineering at an early age,” said Janet Anderson, Development Council Member, SBPLI. “Judging by the FLL qualifying tournaments that we had on February 2-3 in which approximately 85 teams participated, the children on Long Island have a genuine interest in science, technology and engineering.”

For a list of the area schools and youth organizations with teams participating in the “Senior Solutions” Challenge, see the attached page. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be rescheduled for Sunday, March 10. For more information, visitwww.sbpli.org.

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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^®

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 $16 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.

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.