USI's FIRST® LEGO® League Qualifying Tournament Winners
Two teams that competed in the University of Southern Indiana's Southwest Indiana STEM (SwiSTEM) Resources Center's 2015 FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) Qualifying Tournament will be advancing to the 2015 Indiana State FLL Championship in Fort Wayne on December 12. Representing Shoals Elementary School, from Shoals, Indiana, teams RoboRox and RoxStars will proceed to the championship.
The qualifying tournament involved three judging sessions followed by Robots Games. Teams were judged on their core values, project and robot design. Core values examined the team's inspiration, teamwork and gracious professionalism, whereas project and design examined research, innovative solution, presentation, mechanical design, programming, as well as innovation. After a rigorous judging process, RoboRox were recognized as the Grand Champions of the event and RoxStars were presented with two awards for Robot Game and Robot Design.
The challenge involved participants taking a Trash TrekSM into the hidden world of trash. Teams were challenged to rethink the way they look at trash by creating innovative ways to make less trash or improving the way people handle the trash they make. This year's event was organized with the help of over 50 volunteers from both USI and the community.
FIRST® LEGO® League is a robotics program designed to get children excited about science and technology while teaching them valuable employment and life skills. Teams, composed of up to 10 children with at least one adult coach, can also be associated with a pre-existing club or organization, be homeschooled, or just be a group of friends.
Other tournament winners and awards are:
- RoboRox of Shoals, Indiana - Grand Champions
- RoxBots of Shoals, Indiana - Project Review
- RoxStars of Shoals, Indiana - Robot Game
- RoxStars of Shoals, Indiana - Robot Design
- Badger Robotics of Tell City, Indiana - FLL Core Values
- Circuit Breakers of Leopold, Indiana - Rising Star
- RoboRehab of Leopold, Indiana - Team Spirit
Photographs of the 2015 tournament can be found at usi.edu/lego-awards.
For more information contact Allison Grabert, SwiSTEM Resource Center director, at afgrabert@usi.edu or 812-228-5019.