Congratulations to Herndon Elementary's FIRST LEGO Robotics team -- THE STINGERS!

The team, made up of nine 4th and 5th graders from Herndon Elementary school, has been preparing since August to compete in the annual FIRST LEGO League Robotics Challenge.  FIRST, which stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," is a non-profit organization that sponsors robotics competitions each year in an effort to get kids excited about science, technology, engineering and math.  The theme this year - "Smart Move - Transforming Transportation" - asked the kids to focus their brain power on the many challenges and issues faced by the transportation industry.  The team built and programmed a LEGO Mindstorms autonomous robot to perform the various "Smart Move" challenges and also presented the results of their research project based on improving transportation in their local area.  The competition judged the teams on four areas: Robot Performance, Robot Design, Project Presentation, and Teamwork.

Our team, The Stingers... in their rookie year, won the VA/DC FLL Regional Qualifying competition held at the Smithsonian Institute on November 14th and also won a special "Team Spirit" Award.  The "Team Spirit" award goes to the team that most enthusiastically demonstrates a commitment to getting others to see how fun and rewarding science and technology can be.   The kids started this very impromptu conga line and team chant and kept in going throughout the day - everyone knew when the Stingers were coming!

Next stop... the kids get to compete at the Championship Tournament at James Madison University in Harrisonburg Virginia on December 5th and 6th!!!  Please wish them all the best.

Go Stingers!!

ITNG is the proud sponsor of the Stingers robotics team.