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U of M hosts statewide robotics competition Jan. 24-25 focusing on climate
Hundreds of elementary and middle school students on 67 robotics teams from across Minnesota will compete on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 24 and 25, in the FIRST LEGO League State Championship at the University of Minnesota Continuing Education and Conference Center, 1890 Buford Ave., St. Paul. The competition runs from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. with championship matches from 3:15 - 4:30 p.m. each day. The event is free and open to the public. This year's LEGO League competition theme, "Climate Connections," challenges students (ages nine-14) to build small robots from a kit of more than 1,000 parts, including LEGO pieces and elements such as sensors, motors and gears, to demonstrate links between science, people, resources and communities as they relate to climate. Each team's robot will compete on a 4-feet-by-8-feet, table-top playing field simulating tasks such as constructing a levee, extracting an ice core sample and insulating a house. In addition to the performance rounds, students are judged on their research project that included exploring a problem caused by climate in the team's community. Based on that research, the student team is asked to create an innovative solution to the problem, including the impact they can have. To expand their global view, teams also researched another community in a different geographical area that is experiencing a similar problem. The competitions are judged by professional engineers and scientists. The teams competing in the state championship advanced from a pool of more than 360 Minnesota teams who competed in nine regional tournaments over the past two months. Saturday's Division I champion will advance to compete May 7-9 in the U.S. Open Championship in Dayton, Ohio, and Sunday's Division II champion will compete in the LEGO League World Festival April 15-18 in Atlanta. This year in Minnesota, more than 2,000 students competed in LEGO League competitions sponsored by the Minnesota nonprofit group HighTechKids. Worldwide more than 100,000 children in 40 countries compete in LEGO League competitions. For more information about FIRST LEGO League and HighTechKids visit www.hightechkids.org and www.firstlegoleague.org. ---------- |
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