The winning team will represent Israel in the world competition that will be held in Atlanta in April * today they will be joined by winners from high schools
The microsoft FIRST Lego League competition for middle schools ended yesterday, when the "Ramot Hefer" team from Kibbutz Habarot won first place. This year's competition was held under the auspices of the President of the State, Mr. Shimon Peres, as part of the "Technology Cadets of the Future" program of his initiative, and as part of the commemoration of the 60th year of the independence of the State of Israel, which stands for the strengthening of the children of Israel.
FIRST activity in Israel is done in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Technion, and with the support of UMI, GM, the Kahn Foundation, the Rashi Foundation, the Municipality of Tel Aviv and other donors from abroad.
This year, about 50 teams from all over the country participated in the competition. The main sponsor this year is Applied Materials. The challenge of FIRST's Lego League for 2007/8 is in the field of alternative energy. The groups had to find out how to make better use of different energy sources, while learning about the different alternatives such as hybrid cars, solar energy, etc.
The Ramot Hefer team will fly to Atlanta to participate in the world competition, which will take place on April 17-19, 08. Along with her will fly another 5 teams competing in the Microsoft FIRST robotics competition, whose identity will be determined today at the end of the final stage.
Assaf Agmon, CEO of FIRST Israel, said that "The Lego League is an opportunity for young children to get to know the world of science and technology from a new and challenging point of view. This opportunity has a great impact on the path they choose to take in the future, and we believe that with the help of the sponsorship given by the President of the country to the project, within the framework of the "Technology Cadets" project, we will be able to increase the number of children who win this opportunity."
Ron Naftali, Vice President of Applied Research and Development from Materials Israel, congratulated the winners and said "The uniqueness of the Lego competition is that it allowed regulars aged 9-14 to discover the joy of science and technology, in a way that challenged them to think like scientists and engineers. But the symbolic thing is that the topic chosen for the competition is the same problem that the scientists of tomorrow, the children of today, will have to solve in order for us to continue living on Earth."
