Local teams participating are: 1923 Robot Raptors (St. Christopher Elementary School), 15866 Thunder-Bots (Northmont), 17361 IDKY (Community Team), 19186 Lewisburg’s Lego Family (Tri-County North Elementary School), 19619 Waves (Community Team), 24139 Technonati (The Miami Valley School), 31512 X Marks the Bot (McKinley Elementary School), 32411 QuickBots (Homeschool Team), 33196 Firehawk Robotics (Community Team), 35772 A Team (Springboro Intermediate School), 38350 MINDSTORM MADNESS (Community Team), 38352 Belly Flopping Soda Cans (Weller Elementary School) and 45958 Hurricanes (Community Team).
On Feb. 3, robot table competitions will run on the main floor of the Nutter Center from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. The competition is free and open to the public.
Along with the FIRST LEGO League Ohio Championship, a FIRST LEGO League Jr. Expo will take place. FIRST LEGO League Jr is a design and build program for teams of two to six children between the ages of 6 and 10. Twenty-six FIRST LEGO League Jr teams from the greater Dayton area will show off their BOOMTOWN BUILD season through their LEGO models and their Show Me posters.
Team members from high school FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition teams will also be on hand to demo their robots
Since 1988, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology and the LEGO Group have partnered to challenge youth teams who use LEGO bricks, motors, gears and software to design and build robots to solve real-world engineering challenges.
“Since 2001, the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has been the supporting body for FIRST LEGO League in Ohio, providing the funding and recruiting and training the volunteers necessary to run the program,” said Brenda Ronnebaum, state FIRST LEGO League director and Educational Outreach Office Robotics program manager at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “It’s our goal to show children that math and science is fun and to encourage them to pursue careers in a STEM related field.”
“The Ohio FIRST LEGO League Championship is the culminating tournament in Ohio’s program, which consists of 30 regional tournaments and six district qualifying tournaments which took place November through January. There are nearly 500 across the state of Ohio, and the top 60 teams will represent Ohio at the championship event,” Ronnebaum said. “Seven of these Championship teams will earn bids to post-season tournaments: three to World Festival Detroit; two to the Razorback Invitational in Arkansas, one to the International Invitational in Japan and one to the Carolinas Open in Myrtle Beach.”
The FIRST LEGO League Ohio Championship is supported by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Educational Outreach, Wright State University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, The Ohio Educational Outreach Foundation, Rockwell Automation, Holiday Inn Fairborn and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Dayton Section.
For more information about the championship tournament and the Ohio FIRST LEGO League League program, visit http://wpafbstem.com/pages/k12_FLL_overview.html.
Federal endorsement of sponsors is not intended.
Other Ohio teams
Cincinnati area teams:
355 Mythical Dragons (Ross Middle School), 2751 Lego Legion (Home school team), 3010 Constant Deviation (Homeschool Team), 15817 The Official Emmets (Community Team), 25313 CRE8 (Community Team), 31654 Green Machine (Community Team), 37575 Howl Bout It (Spencer Center), 37732 Power Pandas (Mason Middle School), 39371 Baller Builders (Community Team) and 46400 Blockheads (Nativity School)
Columbus and Central Ohio area teams:
2732 The Aztechs (Community Team), 4094 Lost in Lego (Community Team), 4471 The Wizards (Community Team), 5736 Techno Botz (Glacier Ridge Elementary School), 7096 Robosharks (Marburn Academy), 7281 Techno Warriors (Dublin Robotics Boosters), 8220 8 to Automate (Dublin Robotics Boosters), 19625 Techno Storm (Community Team), 19278 Granville Master Builders (Denison University Team), 31144 Mechanical Masterminds (Avery Elementary School), 32106 Emerson Challengers (Emerson Elementary), 32421 Binary Bros (Community Team), 33597 Robo Flow (Community Team), 38747 Viking Robotics (Vinton County Middle School), 38880 The Book Dragons (Community Team) and 41068 Dream Crushers (Community Team)
NE Ohio-Cleveland/Akron/Youngstown area teams:
297 Brain Bots (Community Team), 2493 Buzz Buzz Sting Sting (Kirtland Middle School), 5059 Bovine Warriorz (Community Team), 5416 Builder Birds (University School – Shaker Campus), 20732 Brain Busters (St Paul School), 27253 TehNoLogic (Beachwood Middle School), 34736 IDK (Community Team), 35429 The Photosynthesizers (School of Innovation), 35430 Earthquaker Oats (School of Innovation), 37348 Charged Up (KSS Robotics), 38134 Big Bad Brick Builders (Leighton Elementary School) and 45871 Positive Protons.
NW Ohio area teams:
5276 Octobots (St Patrick Elementary School), 17272 Misfit Mechanical Mages (Sylvania STEM Center), 18356 Robo Cougars (Van Wert Elementary School), 26611 Fort Loramie Thunderbots (Fort Loramie Elementary School), 28586 Master Builders (Eisenhower Middle School), 31953 Fearless Feminine Felines (Girl Scouts of Southwestern Ohio), 38353 Krazy Krane (YMCA Team), 42447 Cougar City Inspectors (Van Wert Middle School) and 43314 Stranger Bots (McKinley Stemm Academy).
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