Students from across Long Island are set to dive into a series of FIRST® LEGO® League Qualifiers – presented by School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) – starting this weekend. Students (ages nine to 14) and their mentors from the program have worked hard to research, design, build, program and test LEGO robots that will best address the “Challenge” set forth in FIRST HYDRO DYNAMICSSM.

For this challenge, students were tasked with identifying a problem within the human water cycle and finding a solution to the problem. Examples might include something as simple as quenching one’s thirst or swimming in a pool, or as complicated as how water is used to produce food, energy and even technology, among other things. Once a problem was identified, the students then evaluated current solutions and subsequently designed, built and tested an innovative solution, using a LEGO MINDSTORMS® kit, that adds value to society.

The students will then present the solution during one of six different Qualifier tournaments being held as follows:

Great Hollow Middle School

Saturday, January 20 | 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Saturday, January 20 | 1 to 6 p.m.

Sunday, January 21 | 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Mineola High School

Saturday, February 3 | 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Saturday, February 3 | 1 to 6 p.m.

Sunday, February 4 | 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Teams competing in the aforementioned events will then earn the opportunity to subsequently advance to the SBPLI FIRST LEGO League Championship tournament at Longwood High School on Sunday, March 4.