Scottsdale eighth-graders to compete in world robotics event

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- “Everything is AWESOME” for a group of Scottsdale middle schoolers invited to compete in the FIRST LEGO League World Festival. The event is considered the Olympics for robotics. FLL is a global robotics program designed to ignite enthusiasm in STEM -- science, technology, engineering, and math.

Aron, Addie, Cannon, and Nora -- all eighth-graders at Cocopah Middle School -- make up the ElectroBotz team. Two of them have been with the team since they were in fourth grade. The group hs been working on their project and competing in tournaments all year. They recently won the Arizona FIRST LEGO League Championship, which earned them an invitation to the World Festival in Houston, Texas, later this month.

Each season, FLL teams focus on solving real-world challenges; they must identify a problem and develop an innovative solution. This year’s theme is Cargo Connect. The ElectroBotz and their competitors have to pinpoint a specific issue related to the transportation of products and come up with a way to make it better.

The ElectroBotz had a chance to tour the Sky Harbor Cargo Operations area and the FedEx Cargo Facility at Sky Harbor as part of the research for their project. The team will present their innovative project at the FLL World Festival, where they will compete against more than 100 teams from around the globe.

But they need your help to get to Houston. There’s a GoFundMe fundraiser to help them cover the costs, including event registration, travel, hotel, and additional competition-related expenses. The FLL World Festival is April 20-23.

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By the way, if you don’t know, “Everything is AWESOME” is the theme song for “The Lego Movie” It was nominated for an Oscar in 2015 in the Best Original Song category.

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