Lego Team Impressive at North American Open

The LEGO team from Robbinsdale Spanish Immersion School (RSIS) and capped nine months of hard work with a great showing at the first-ever FIRST LEGO League (FLL) North American Open, which was held in Carlsbad, California at the end of May.

76 teams from 33 U.S. states, plus Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico competed in the two-day event.  These teams represented the champions, runners-up and recommended teams from the 2011 FLL Body Forward Challenge, a three-part robotics challenge based on real-world scientific issues. 

As part of the North American Open, teams had to complete a technical research project in which they needed to identify a real-world problem and develop an innovative solution.  They also had to design, build and program a robot out of Legos that completed a series of missions during a timed race.  The teams were judged on project presentation, robot performance, technical design and programming of the robot, as well as teamwork and professionalism.

Leggo My Lego!, comprised of fifth and sixth graders,  was one of five teams competing from Minnesota, and competed against teams which had some students as old as tenth grade.  Their ingenuity earned them a ranking of 18th in the robot performance. 

Leggo My Lego! team members are Alice Zeiska, Andrew Carlson, Elise Gallup, Evan Condon, Matthew Granstrom, and Maria LaMothe.