Following a series of six qualifiers, 40 FIRST^® LEGO^® League teams from across Nassau and Suffolk Counties are set to compete at the SBPLI Long Island Championship at Longwood High School on Sunday, March 4. During the event, presented by School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI), students (ages nine to 14) and their mentors from the program will present their LEGO robots that best address the “Challenge” set forth in this year’s theme – FIRST HYDRO DYNAMICS^SM.

Throughout the season, these teams were among the more than 190 that worked hard to research, design, build, program and test LEGO robots that address a problem within the human water cycle. Students were first tasked with identifying the problem - it could be 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 that add value to society, developed an innovative solution, and subsequently presented their project to the Judges. In addition, using a LEGO MINDSTORMS^® kit, they designed and built a robot to solve missions on the competition tables.

FIRST LEGO League introduces young people to the excitement of learning with its partner The LEGO Group. Students are encouraged to explore and pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields both within the FIRST program and in their future education and careers.

Students presented their solutions during one of six different Qualifier tournaments that were held at Great Hollow Middle School and Mineola High School in late January and early February. Teams that competed at the Qualifiers worked to earn an opportunity to advance to the SBPLI FIRST LEGO League Championship at Longwood High School on Sunday, March 4.

The full list of 40 teams that earned the chance to compete in the Championship tournament are noted below. These teams will work to earn the chance to advance to the FIRST World Festival in Detroit on April 28.

“We had a great FIRST LEGO League season on Long Island and we are looking forward to our final event at Longwood,” says Stephanie Stern, Co-Program Director and SBPLI/FIRST Long Island representative. “Every year, we are amazed at the skills that our students acquire from this program – be it teamwork and sportsmanship or science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. As we continue to add new teams and events, we project continued growth among FIRST LEGO League students in the years to come.”

For more information on SBPLI and the FIRST Long Island complement of programs, or to become a sponsor, please visit www.sbpli-lifirst.org.

The following 40 teams have advanced to the Long Island FIRST LEGO League Championships, which will take place on Sunday, March 4 at Longwood High School:

*Denotes the teams which were the presented with the “Champions” Award at each team’s respective Qualifier Tournament.