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 SPIKETM Prime or LEGO® MINDSTORMS® and create an innovative solution to a problem as part of their Innovation Project.
 
This year’s Challenge — CARGO CONNECTSM — 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:

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