Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Student Robotics Competition Focuses On Climate Issues.

Student Robotics Competition Focuses On Climate Issues.

The Ventura County (CA) Star (11/17, Moore) reported, "More than 200 students filled the Boys & Girls Club in Camarillo on Sunday, displaying Lego robots they had built and programmed to complete a series of missions related to the climate." The competitions, sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), "included delivering a polar bear to its proper habitat, elevating a house and taking an ice core sample out of the ground." The student "teams were judged in four areas: project presentation, robot performance, technical design and programming, and teamwork." In addition to the robotics competition, the students "researched a problem with the climate in their own area," and developed a solution, which they then presented "to their homeowners association and...city officials," as well as the competition's judges.