'First Lego' League Qualifying Tournament in Southwest Riverside County

The following was submitted for publication on behalf of Rancho Christian School:

On Saturday, November 1, 2014 Rancho Christian School will host 11 FIRST LEGO® League Teams from across Southern California for the inaugural qualifying tournament of Southwest Riverside County.

Teams solve real-world problems through robot design and research at FIRST LEGO® League Qualifying Tournaments. Children from FLL teams across southern California know the challenge and excitement of designing and building an original robot in the FIRST LEGO® League program (firstlegoleague.org). This weekend, at Rancho Christian School, eight weeks of research and design will culminate in the FIRST LEGO® League Temecula Valley Qualifying Tournament where teams of children and mentors will demonstrate their problem-solving skills, creative thinking, teamwork, competitive play, sportsmanship, and sense of community. Among the participants are 9 to 14-year old boys and girls. This action packed event is free and open to the public, with the most exciting matches scheduled to take place beginning at 1 p.m. In addition, in partnership with FIRST LEGO® League, a local FIRST Robotics Challenge team will be there throughout the day working with the younger students and demonstrating their robot.

The event has been a year in planning and fills a void for a tournament in the local area. For the 2014-15 Season there are 628 teams registered within 100 miles of Temecula with only 19 qualifying tournaments in the same area. (http://www.usfirst.org/whats-going-on)

Founded by inventor Dean Kamen FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was created to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. FIRSTLEGO® League is an international program created in partnership between FIRST and the LEGO company in 1998. Each September, FIRST LEGO® League announces its annual Challenge to teams, which engages them in authentic scientific research and hands-on robotics design. This year’s Challenge is World Class. Using LEGO MINDSTORMS™ technologies and LEGO bricks, children work alongside adult mentors to design, build, and program robots to solve real-world challenges. This year over 265,000 children worldwide will participate in over 26,000 teams.