On Sunday, Jan. 13, the fourth annual SBPLI First Lego League Tournament was held at Longwood High School. Forty-five teams consisting of 9-14-year olds from Long Island participated in this year's event. The teams competed in various aspects of robot performance, research and teamwork. This year's theme was power puzzle, and teams were challenged with evaluating energy consumption and making recommendations for improvement.

The Plainview-Old Bethpage middle school team was awarded the first-place programming award, for their innovative use of math to develop programming for the robot. When evaluating robot programming, judges look for teams whose programming stands out for innovation, dependability, or both. Judges watch the robots work and they interview the team members, looking for things that make the judges say "wow." This year's team members were from both Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School, and Mattlin Middle School.