Long Island Children Apply Research and Robotics to Explore How Natural Disasters Occur during FIRST LEGO League Championship and Junior FLL Expo

On Sunday, March 2, from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 4:00 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 Longwood High 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 1-2, Qualifying Tournaments were held at Central Islip High School in which 110 teams competed for an opportunity to advance to the championship tournament.

This year's challenge is NATURE'S FURYSM, where children in elementary and middle school will research and present their own creative solutions to one of the largest international issues Ñ natural disasters Ñ which have affected nearly three billion people globally since 2000. Children and their coaches will utilize robots to solve a set of natural disaster missions. Some will include positioning an evacuation sign, clearing an airplane's runway of debris, and developing solutions that could be used in the future.

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 that 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 (Jr. FLL) Expo, which will take place at the same day and location from 9 a.m. to approximately noon. In the Junior FIRST LEGO League's DISASTER BLASTERSM Challenge, children ages 6 to 9 will explore a natural disaster in-depth; research what it takes to prepare for, respond to or recover from that type of disaster; 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 Joani Madarash, Executive Director, SBPLI. "Judging by the 110 FLL teams at the Qualifying Tournaments and the 44 Jr. FLL teams at the Expo, 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 FLL teams participating in the "NATURE'S FURY" Challenge, see the attached page. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be rescheduled for Sunday, March 9.




TEAM #

TEAM NAME

LOCATION

660

Longwood Cyclones

Middle Island

1318

Junior Canes

Westhampton Beach

1393

Clayton Huey Red Devils

Center Moriches

1462

Carle Place Middle School

Carle Place

2048

Radical Robots

Girl Scouts Suffolk County

2127

The Gizmos

Rockville Centre

2878

Tesla Empire

Bayport

3181

Floral Park Brick Heads

Floral Park

3805

WMS Bulldogs

Hewlett

4397

Digital Darlings

Girl Scouts Nassau County

4403

LEGO Chicks

Girl Scouts Nassau County

4404

Merrick Masters :)

Girl Scouts Nassau County

4406

Smart Cookies

Girl Scouts Nassau County

4579

Trojan Army Robotics

Garden City

4803

4-H Robot Crafters

Yaphank

4804

4-H Pioneers

Yaphank

5012

Fury of the Locust

Locust Valley

5288

GearHeadz

Rocky Point

5439

Robotic Rebels

Stewart Manor

5570

Chickenators

East Moriches

5667

The Indestructible Flying Waffles

Port Washington

6294

Crazy Creators

Garden City

6424

Bluepoint RoboPhantoms

Bayport

6897

Saxton Rockin' Robotics

Patchogue

7325

FA's R & B Mindstormers

Locust Valley

7488

Thunder Chickens

Garden City

8434

Rocky Point Radical Robotix

Rocky Point

9600

Robotics Avengers

Smithtown

10531

BuckleyBots

Roslyn

10629

Rockin Robotics

Garden City

10655

Finley Falco Techs

Huntington

11576

William Floyd

Girl Scouts Suffolk County

13402

Purple Robo

Central Islip

14139

EMB Targets

Great Neck

14160

Saddle Rockin' Robots

Great Neck

14190

Lakeville Lightning

Great Neck

14599

The Disaster DeFusers

Oyster Bay

14684

Tornadoes

Greenlawn

15358

Great Neck Robotics team #5

Great Neck

17031

South Side Middle School

Rockville Centre

18146

Eagles

Copiague

18267

Disaster Masters

Locust Valley