The Copiague Middle School Robotics team participated at the FIRST LEGO League Long Island Regional Robotics Qualifier Tournament held at Berner Middle School in Massapequa in January. The objective of the competition was to build a programmable robot and to successfully perform various missions related to this year’s theme, “Food Factor.”
For the competition, teams must build and program an autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS technology to score points in 2.5-minute matches on a themed playing field. Additionally, teams must explore an actual problem that today's scientists and engineers are trying to solve, develop an innovative solution to that problem, and share their findings. The Copiague team focused their project on arsenic and how to get it out of food.
During the qualifier, the Copiague students competed against 39 other teams, winning first place in Mechanical Design of a Robot. With this win, the students have qualified for the FIRST LEGO League Long Island Robotics Championship Tournament to be held at Longwood Middle School on March 4.
To prepare for the Long Island Championship, the group of students invited Suffolk County Legislator DuWayne Gregory to a meeting to discuss their findings and to ask for advice on how to best present their research.
Congratulations to the Copiague team members: Luke Bordanaro, Michael Buckley, Nick Favichia, Robert Favichia, William Feldman, Collin Fuchs, David Grinthal, Vicky Grinthal, Anthony Molina, and Greg Morgan, their coach Steve Phillips, manager Vincent Paterno, and mentor Christine Grinthal.
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