By Gabrielle Terrett

The Vicksburg Post
Three! Two! One! Lego!

These words could be heard as students from across the state competed in the annual FIRST Lego League Competition Saturday.

The competition was centered around hydrodynamics this year and each team had the task of not only creating a science project to identify and solve a water related issue but also creating a robot to compete in the day’s competition.

“Every year they get a different challenge and this year was hydrodynamics,” said Steve Kitchens, director of the FIRST Lego League Competition. “They look at the way water is found, transported, used or disposed of. So they identify a problem in the water and then they come up with a solution for that problem.”

The 22 teams that competed in the event began preparing in August working on projects for the competition and all were judged on different aspects of the robots.

Students had been working on  building and programming the robots to carry out duties on a given platform. Each team was supplied with similar tools and materials to work with.

“Tons of preparation goes into this event,” Kitchens said. “The kids have been working on their projects since August.”

The students also learned several lessons from the event.