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More than 200 Kids compete with LEGO Robots and Water in North Bay

The tournament has grown from 11 teams in 2015 to 18 teams in 2016 to 25 teams in 2017
First Robotics Cybergnomes March 2017_4

On Saturday, December 9th, 25 FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams from North Bay and area will gather at Chippewa Secondary School to compete for bragging rights and a chance to participate at the Provincial FLL Championship in January.

The 3rd Annual North Bay FLL Qualifying Tournament is sponsored by FIRST Team 1305 and many Team 1305 students have been spending the last few months mentoring the FLL students and their teams.

The tournament has grown from 11 teams in 2015 to 18 teams in 2016 to 25 teams in 2017!  This means, more than 200 kids (aged 9 to 14) and over 50 student, parent and teacher mentors, will be descending on Chippewa on December 9. This year, 3 teams will travel from Manitoulin Island and 2 teams from Huntsville will travel to participate.

The theme of this year’s FLL challenge is ‘Hydrodynamics”.  Area FLL teams, composed of up to 10 students are tasked with building a robot using LEGO Mindstorms that autonomously complete ‘missions’ on a competition table.  In addition to the robot game, teams are challenged in a research project.  This year’s theme Hydrodynamics asks teams to find problems and solutions in the human water cycle – which is ‘how we collect, use, distribute and dispose of water’. Teams have been visiting North Bay’s water treatment plants and interviewing many water experts in our area.  The final judged component of FLL is Core Values. Teams have learned the 8 FLL Core Values and played numerous team building games while bonding as a team.

The competition is FREE and all members of the public are welcome to join in the day.  Opening ceremonies take place at 8 a.m., followed by a full day of table-top robotics matches and project presentations and judging.  Best spectator times are from 12:30-3:30 Awards should be complete by 4:30.