Watch a movie of the final here.

Each year FLL teams embark on an adventurous challenge based on current, real-world issues. Guided by a team coach and assisted by mentors, the students:  

• Research and solve a real-world problem based on the challenge theme
• Present their research and solutions
• Build an autonomous robot using engineering concepts

Each year there is a challenge with themed activities. This year’s challenge called for teams to use robotics to understand and create solutions for one of today’s critical  issues: TRANSPORT.  Teams had to program their NXT robots to complete challenges all linked to the topic of getting to and from places.  

The theme of the competition this year was “Smart Moves” and involved schools researching a topic based on transport.  Pupils were asked to look at their community and discover how people, animals, information and things travel.  Once they had found out how people and things move in their community, they had to pick one main mode of transportation and do some research.  What kind of problems keep people and things from moving safely and efficiently, getting where they are going quickly and using the least amount of energy?  How could each team help solve one of those problems?  All the teams presented their findings to a team of judges at the tournament. 

South Tyneside Final

Wednesday 9th December 2009

This year’s competition was the biggest yet in South Tyneside and involved almost half of all the primary schools.  It was great fun and gave the teams the opportunity to develop problem solving and teamwork skills in a supportive environment.  The atmosphere on the day at Temple Park Leisure Centre was electric. 

The participating schools were:

• Cleadon Village C of E Primary School
• Harton Junior School
• Hedworthfield Primary School
• St Joseph’s R C Comprehensive School
• St Oswald’s R C Primary School
• Fellgate Primary
• Whitburn Village Primary
• Hebburn Comprehensive School
• Holy Trinity Cof E Primary
• Hadrian Primary
• East Boldon Junior School
• St Mary's RC Primary School
• St Aloysius RC Primary School
• Stanhope Primary
• Lord Blyton Primary
• Lukes Lane Community Primary
• Mortimer Primary
• Ridgeway Primary
• Seaview Primary School
• St Matthews RC Primary
• Galsworthy Centre
• Hearing and Visual Impaired Unit

Each of the participating schools were given induction and basic training sessions using the Lego NXT robots. These were held at OpenZone in the autumn term.  Each school was given a robot and all of the Lego required to build this year’s competition course.

 The team winning the competition overall were from Cleadon Village C of E Primary School.  They will represent South Tyneside in the National Final in Loughborough in January. 

The UK winner will join other teams from around the world to compete in Atlanta and Copenhagen later in the year.  Other prizes awarded on the day were:  

• Robotics game -  St Oswalds R C Primary School
• Programming -   Mortimer Primary
• Robot Design -   Hedworthfield Primary
• Presentation -     Cleadon Village Primary School
• Teamwork -        St Aloysius Juniors & Stanhope Primary