On Saturday 28 January 2012, 24 teams from across the UK and Ireland gathered at Loughborough University to compete in the UK & Ireland finals of the 2012 FIRST® LEGO® League.
The teams, all regional winners aged 9-16, were tasked with designing, building and programming robots built using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education to complete a number of activities against the clock. These activities all related the theme for this year’s competition, Food Factor. Additionally, teams were scored on the presentation of a related project and their team spirit throughout the competition.
Action from the 4 main game tables
Spurred on by the energetic MC Paul Sleem, the competition soon heated up. The overall winners of the event were TSM Roboteam from Trimley St Martin Primary School who now have the opportunity to represent the UK & Ireland at the World FLL Championship in St Louis, USA.
TSM Roboteam being presented their winning trophy by Ward Van Duffel, Managing Director of LEGO Education Europe
Three teams also qualified for the European FLL Championship in Germany. These were Widcombe Wrobotiers from Widcombe Junior School, St Thomas Food-o-Bots from St Thomas Church of England Primary School and Bor-EAT-ton from Boreatton Scouts.
A number of other awards were also handed during the event. These included:
- Judges Award for excellent use of multimedia
- Winners: B33bots – Home educators
- Ford Award for Team Spirit
- Winners: Team Rathmore from Rathmore Grammar School
- Loughborough University Award for Innovation
- Widcombe Wrobotiers from Widcombe Junior School
- Core Values
- Runners Up: Mad Scientists from Swanmore College of Technology
- Winners: Beechen Robotics from Beechen Cliff School
- Robot Game
- Runners Up: Widcombe Wrobotiers from Widcombe Junior School
- Winners: TSM Roboteam from Trimley St Martin Primary School
- Robot Design
- Runners Up: T.H.S. from Thorpe Hall School
- Winners: Bor-EAT-ton from Boreatton Scouts
- Research Project
- Runners Up: LiNKS Elite
- Winners: St Thomas Food-o-bots
- Champion’s Award Winners
- TSM Roboteam
The spirit in which the finals were entered into by all the teams was fantastic and the FLL competition as a whole goes a long way towards showing how STEM can be delivered to young people in an exciting and engaging way.
Take a look at more photos from the day.
Visit the FIRST LEGO League website for more information about the competition and taking part next year.
2012 Challenge – Senior Solutions
Can FIRST LEGO League teams improve the quality of life for seniors by helping them continue to be independent, engaged and connected in their communities? In the 2012 Senior Solutions Challenge, over 200,000 children ages 9 to16 from more than 60 countries will explore the topic of aging and how it may effect a person’s ability to maintain his or her lifestyle – solving issues like getting around, keeping in touch or staying fit. Teams will research obstacles and then suggest ways to improve the quality of life for the seniors affected. Teams will also build, test and program an autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS Education robot to solve a set of missions on an obstacle course. Throughout their experience, teams will operate under FLL’s signature set of Core Values.
