AUGUSTA- Sixty two teams descended on the Augusta Civic Center to finish up their FIRST LEGO League Season on Saturday. Teams from all over the state competed with their LEGO robots on this year’s “Nature’s Fury” playing field.
The FIRST LEGO League is an International competition with over 20,000 teams of 9-14 year old students, all working and learning about natural disasters.
The competition is the 14th annual Maine FIRST LEGO League Championship and is run by Maine Robotics of Orono. The 2013 competition was sponsored by Time Warner Cable and it’s Connect-a-Million-Minds program; as well as by the Robotic Institute of Maine, the University of Maine College of Engineering, and the University of Southern Maine.
The event was also attended by Acting Commissioner of Education Jim Rier, Maine DOE Coordinator of Standards and Instruction Anita Bernhardt, Maine Director of the Office of Information Technology Jim Smith, Acting Director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency Bruce Fitzgerald, Senator Angus King and more than 2,000 people who came to the all-day event at the Civic Center.
The competition evaluates teams on 10 different categories. Awards went to the following teams:
- 2014 Champions Award (overall best teams): First Team – Oh Boy… These Pickles are Natural Disasters, Connors Emerson School in Bar Harbor; Second Team – The Bridgineers, Farmington; and Third Team – Just Keep Swimming, Spruce Mountain Middle School, Jay.
- Robot Performance Award: Oh Boy… These Pickles are Natural Disasters, Connors Emerson School, Bar Harbor.
- Mechanical Design Award: The Hurricanes, Dr. Levesque Elementary School, Frenchville.
- Programming Award: Tsunami Llamas, Sea Road School, Kennebunk.
- Strategy and Innovation Award: Yolo Swag, Lewiston Public School
- Inspiration Award: Buxton Wilfire Department, Buxton Elementary School.
- Teamwork Award: Twisters, Oxford Hills Homeschool Robotics Club.
- Gracious Professionalism Award: MDES Stormtroopers, Mount Desert Elementary School, Northeast Harbor.
- Research Award: Just Keep Swimming, Spruce Mountain Middle School, Jay.
- Innovative Solution Award: L-E-GNG-O, local team, Gray.
- Presentation Award: FIRST RESPONDERS, local team, Kennebunk.
- T-shirt Award: Rockland RoboGeeks, RSU 13, Rockland
- Rookie Team Award: Team E.V.3. The Energizer V. 3unnies, Thomaston Grammar School.
- Judges Award: The Generators, Spruce Mountain Middle School, Jay.