FIRST Lego League returns

FIRST Lego League returns to the MTN Sciencentre on Saturday October 27 2007!

An international robotics competition (see above, with Western Cape education minister Cameron Dugmore monitoring proceedings) comes to Cape Town on the morning of Saturday October 27.

''Bring your ear plugs, or your vuvuzelas, for the First Lego League tournament,'' said the host, Julie Cleverdon, director of the MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk shopping mall.

''It's noisy,'' happily admitted head judge Peter Pretorius, managing director of the non-profit science communication organisation ZelTech in Vanderbijlpark, who flies into the city on Thursday to prepare for the event.

''It's the only science event where children actually shout for science,'' he said. ''What is important for me is to make it so they can shout the same way they do in the rugby world cup final, to get the children really excited.''

17 teams are participating, with robots racing against the clock to perform tasks from 10 am until 3 pm, said Jani de Bruin of the MTN Sciencentre. She encouraged people to attend the competition, saying the centre was having a special R10 entry for the day.

14-year-old student Nanzi Siyo from the Science Education Resources Initiative (SERI) in Khayelitsha participated in the FIRST Lego League last year. ''The competition was tough, the other teams were brilliant and we did very badly,'' remembered the grade nine Luhlaza High School student.

''But then, we didn't have the experience. Now, we are confident about our project
and we expect to do very well.''

Nanzi described the robots as being shoe-sized: ''Size 7.''

Her colleague in the Dynamic Dynamos team, Sive Gladile, said the students built the robots under the guidance of coach (and teacher) Peter Oxenham and programmed them to perform missions. ''Ja, I'm a bit nervous, I haven't experienced this yet,'' she admitted.



Their team will be up against Belgrava High, Westerford, American International School of Cape Town, Bishops, SACS junior school, Elkanah House and Somerset College, as well as Kiddiwinks shop and the ORT-tech programme.

The i-Robo team is composed of grade 10 students Izola Hobongwana, Loyiso Matyumza, Bulumko Matshoba, Wandile Ganya and Vuyelwa Dlungane from Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) school in Khayelitsha.

''I'm hoping they'll be in the top five,'' predicted coach Tiro Motaung from
Rondebosch. ''The Lego League competitions are a fun activity to see and
participate in but I think the students have already had the most fun when
they got the kits for the first time. They were overwhelmed by the small
Lego pieces. The process of building the machines and trying to understand
what they do caused a lot of laughter.''

The Cape Town students form a fraction of the international total: 100,000
children from 50 countries participate in the FIRST Lego League each year.
Only South Africa and Egypt participate from the African continent.

''For me, to watch the children performing on the playing field, seeing the
passion with which they approach science and engineering and technology, is
absolutely fabulous,'' head judge Peter Pretorius said.

''I love robots,'' Pretorius said. ''I started with computers and it was
just a natural advancement into robots, they're just computers that move
around.''

The Cape Town event kicks of a nationwide series of FIRST Lego League
events, including a tournament in Gauteng the following weekend (November
3), a special tournament for Jewish schools in Sandton and an Eastern Cape
competition on December 1 at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in
Port Elizabeth.

Saturday morning's event is being underwritten by the Canal Walk Foundation,
the first corporate social investment programme to have been created by a
South African shopping centre, said Vanessa Herbst. ''We support education, so naturally we support what the FIRST Lego League is doing.''


Note to eds: fabulous photos available from earlier FIRST Lego Leagues on
request from Jani de Bruin on 021 5298128 or 0823 276 9509 or email
jani.debruin@mtnsciencentre.org.za

Team contacts:

Elkanah House: Melany Liebich T: 021 554 8139 C: 083 928 8732 Email:
melanyl@elkanah.co.za

Somerset College: Tony Shuttleworth T: 021 856 3843 Email:
tshuttleworth@worldonline.co.za

SACS Junior: Eloise Baker T: 021 689 4110 Email: bakerma@iafrica.com

American International School of Cape Town: Rick Briggs T: 021 713 2220
rbriggs@aisct.org.za

Bishops: Mervin Walsh C: 084 658 9599 H: 021 658 6587 mwalsh@bishops.org.za

Belgravia High: Ghairoe Jacobs C: 084 584 1898 geejacobs@yahoo.com

Westerford High: Andre Engel T: 021 689 9154 F: 021 685 5675
AE@whs.wcape.school.za

Kiddiwinks: Kevin Poulter C: 082 882 6164 info@kiddiwinks.co.za

Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT): Tiro Motaung T: 084 899 2754
Tiro.motaung@gmail.com

Science Education Resources Initiative (SERI) Peter Oxenham C: 076 171 6208
peter@seri.org.za

ORT Tech: Kevin Valensky T: 021 529 8168 kevin@ortsa.org.za

Peter Pretorius is available for interviews in English and Afrikaans on 082
479 2714. His website is http://www.zeltech.org/

For more information on the First Lego League, their website is
www.FirstLegoLeague.org