School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) announced that, of the 11 robotics teams from Long Island attending the competitions, four received awards at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC) Championship, and another at the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival, both of which were held April 16-18 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.

In the FRC, Team 263 (Sachem Central School District), “Sachem Aftershock,” won the Xerox Creativity Award. The award celebrates creative design, use of a component, or a creative or unique strategy of play. Whether you want to call it “thinking outside the box” or “pushing the envelope,” this winning team demonstrates that it has creatively gone beyond the norm in tackling this year’s game challenge.

In addition, two teams were division finalists: Team 870 (Southold Jr. & Sr. HS), “Team R.I.C.E,” which won the GM Industrial Design Award at the Long Island FIRST Robotics Competition in March, and Team 329 (Patchogue-Medford), “The Raiders,” winner of the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Awardat LI FIRST and a 2009 LI FIRST Regional Finalist. Team 353 (Plainview-Old Bethpage), “POBOTS,” which won the Regional Chairman’s Award at this year’s LI FIRST, was a division quarterfinalist.

In the FLL World Festival, Team 3790 (Girl Scouts of Nassau County), “Ice Breakers,” won the Team Spirit Award. This award goes to the team that most enthusiastically demonstrates a commitment to getting others to see how accessible, fun and rewarding science and technology can be. In January, Team 3790 won the FLL Champion’s Award, the most prestigious award that any team can win, at the SBPLI Long Island Championship Tournament.

Other teams that participated in the FRC Championship included Team 271 (Bay Shore), Team 287 (William Floyd), Team 358 (Hauppauge), Team 533 (Lindenhurst), Team 2638 (Great Neck South) and Team 2875 (Cold Spring Harbor). According to SBPLI, this was the largest contingent from Long Island to participate in the World Championships.