Mount Prospect team wins state Lego competition
A Mount Prospect team won first place in the statewide LEGO competition last week and the team - iLego - will move on to the April national competition in Atlanta.
Spokesman Eric Arndt said 64 teams of 9- to 14-year-olds competed at the Forest View Educational Center field house in Arlington Heights for a state championship based largely on ingenuity, inspiration and teamwork.
The FIRST Lego League Illinois State Championship Tournament was the culmination of months of research and design on robotic solutions to this year's topic: Gaining Efficiency in Transportation Systems. (FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
The team Finding FUEL, from Lake Zurich, came in second and Some Assembly Required, of Bartlett came in third.
An Arlington Heights team, SWAT, won the Ambassador award, Arndt said.
"That team will be representing the league at different events throughout the year," he said.
FLL is an international program for 9- to 14 year-old children created in a partnership between FIRST and The Lego Group in 1998, based on their common belief that fun and learning go hand-in-hand, and that an inspired mind can accomplish anything.
The national FIRST Championship will be held April 15-17, 2010 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.