Rockland pupils win LEGO tournament

BREWER – A team of elementary and middle school pupils from Rockland won the fifth annual FIRST LEGO League Tournament Sunday at Brewer High School.

The eight pupils are from Rockland District Middle School, South School and Owls Head Central School, all part of SAD 5, as well as from the Riley School, a private school.

The team was among 38 groups that competed in the tournament, designed to foster interest in science and technology.

Organized by Tom Bickford, owner of Maine Robotics in Orono, the competition was attended by approximately 300 children ages 9-14 and 700 coaches, volunteers, parents and spectators.

Competitors had to build a robot that could complete a number of missions, such as retrieve a pair of glasses, feed pets, open a gate, climb stairs, put dinner on the table, signal a bus and play basketball.

Besides placing first in the overall competition, the Rockland team won the Performance Award for robot design, programming, strategy and teamwork.

The Trenton Elementary School team won the Team Spirit Award and the Veazie Community School team was named runner-up for the Performance Award.

Gail Bickford of Orono was head judge and Del Merritt of the Great Salt Bay School in Damariscotta was head referee. Also helping to run the event were Alvah Humphrey of Exeter and Tom Sawyer of Bangor.

Sponsoring the event were National Semiconductor in South Portland and Learning Without Borders, an after-school program sponsored by The River Coalition of Old Town.