Oak Ridge Today

Jefferson’s Master Builders St. Louis-bound as LEGO champions

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Jefferson-Middle-School-Master-Builders-Feb-2016

Members of Jefferson Middle School’s Master Builders are, from left, Amelia Thomson, Iliana Spence, Henry Scott, Jessica Mohr, and Thora Spence. Not pictured is Andrew Brady. (Submitted photo)

 

Jefferson Middle School’s Master Builders are bound for St. Louis in April after they won the Champions Award as the overall winner of the FIRST LEGO League Tournament held February 13 at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville.

By virtue of their victory, the Master Builders have qualified to travel to St. Louis in April representing East Tennessee in the FIRST LEGO League World Championships, a press release said.

The Master Builders are the second team from Jefferson during the past two years to win the Champions Award. The Atomic Eagles were Champions Award winners a year ago. [Read more…]

Knoxville Regional LEGO tournament Saturday at Hardin Valley

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Knoxville Regional LEGO Tournament

About 100 students representing 18 Knoxville area teams will compete in a regional LEGO tournament Saturday at Hardin Valley Academy, working with miniature robots that perform required tasks on a table.

Robertsville Middle School is the defending state champion. Under the new format this year, the team needs to qualify in this regional tournament before advancing to the state tournament.

“This year’s theme in ‘Nature’s Fury,’” said John Tilson, a Hardin Valley science teacher and Saturday’s tournament director. “The students have a lot of problems they need to solve. They design and build a predominantly LEGO robot. They perform a certain number of challenges and they get points for each challenge. They have to do certain rescues, and they have to move certain items from place to place.” [Read more…]

UT-Battelle donates $50,000 to Oak Ridge science competition

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UT-Battelle Grant Robots

UT-Battelle has announced a $50,000 donation for the FIRST Robotics and FIRST Lego science competition for Oak Ridge schools. Pictured above are, from left, Thomas Zacharia, Jeff Smith, Martin Keller, and Thom Mason. (Photo submitted by ORPSEF)

UT-Battelle has announced a $50,000 gift to fund the FIRST Robotics and FIRST Lego science competitions for Oak Ridge schools.

The announcement came as part of the capital campaign sponsored by the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation to make a “critical difference” by providing additional resources to Oak Ridge teachers and students.

Two of the region’s most popular and fastest growing activities, FIRST Robotics and FIRST LEGO are team competitions that combine the excitement of sports with real-world challenges of science and technology.

[Read more…]