Greenbriar West Elementary's LEGO Team — The Energizers 100 — started preparing for the 2007 First LEGO League Robotics competition last summer.
On Sept. 4, the team was given its first challenge on how to program a robot. The team met every week to build and program the robot to do certain tasks.
By Nov. 7, all the programs were ready for the regional Robotics competition at Gayle Middle School in Stafford where they went up against 17 teams.
This year's theme was energy conservation and the challenge was to audit a community building and offer up recommendations. The team chose Greenbriar West Elementary's library, the office connected to it and the media room. They measured the space and drew a blueprint of it. They also interviewed the administration and staff to understand the construction of the building. Afterward, they made some recommendations that included programmable thermostats, green roofs, solar panels on both the school and their buses, and CFL/LED light bulbs.
They then incorporated all of this into a five-minute presentation, including an idea for alternative energy. For their presentation, the Energizers won first place in the region and the chance to compete in the Virginia State First LEGO League Tournament this weekend, Dec. 8-9 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.