On Saturday, 13 December 12 teams gathered to compete in the FIRST Lego League Northern California Regional Tournament at Will C. Wood High School. Locally Vacaville was represented by 4 teams total - 2 from VUSD (The Wall-Ebots, Short Circuit) and 2 from TUSD (The Dancing Tacos, Lil' Einsteins). The competition is entrenched in the spirit of teamwork and strives to instill their catch phrase, "Gracious Professionalism."

The FIRST acronym speaks volumes. It stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. The students, ages 9-14, must build and program an autonomous robot, explain its design, exemplify teamwork and also present an innovative solution to the year's challenge. The theme for 2008 was entitled 'Climate Connections.'

The tournament was hosted by VUSD GATE and had corporate sponsorship from Banks Integration Group. The logistics included a Project presentation related to real-time climate issue, teamwork component, robot design and culminated in the live Robot Games. The FLL Tournament was seamlessly guided by Mr. Jim Wasielewski, VUSD's Technology Coordinator and masterful scorekeeper Mr. Barry Rico - VUSD's Digital Education Coordinator. An eclectic group of volunteers from across the community collaborated to make the tournament a huge success. Judges included FLL tournament mentors - Mr. Eric Reed, Mr. Duane Murphy, Mr. Ken Leung and Ms. Jill Wilker. VUSD had representation from staff from Vaca High, Will C. Wood, Jepson, Vaca Pena, Padan, Sierra Vista, Principals, VUSD GATE Student Mentors and even the high school Robotics teams from both Vaca High and Vanden entertained between rounds in the 'Quad!'

As the Tournament came to a close, the tension mounted. The teams that were recognized included: M Cubed - Robot Games, Robot Design Awards; Wall-Ebots (one of the Vacaville Unified's teams) - Teamwork; Roboterminators- Project Presentation. The FLL Tournaments have a statistical group that advances to the next level of competition based upon the number of teams competing across the region. The exciting news declared Short Circuit (another VUSD team) would advance with M-Cubed and The Roboterminators to the state competion at Newark High School on Sunday, 25 January 2009.

A great day was had by all... the great hope is that this is indeed the 'FIRST' of many FLL Tournaments to follow for VUSD!

Go to FLL web site