In The Classroom:

Local kids scored first place recently in the local qualifier round of a worldwide robotics and technology competition put together by Lego and FIRST.

The Newport Coast “Bad Robot” team of fifth- and sixth-graders won the FIRST Lego League qualifying tournament at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana earlier this month, beating out 23 other teams.

“It was stunning,” said parent John Chan. “I was amazed that they beat out older kids. I think it was a little disturbing to the 13- and 14-year-olds. It was really fun, and really rewarding for the kids.”

Annelise Bui, 10; Maximilian Bui, 11; Ryan Chan, 10; Tyler Chan, 11; and Camellia Edalat, 10, will go to a Southern California regional competition at Legoland on Saturday.

If they win there, they will go on to Atlanta for the worldwide competition.

“What’s nice about our team is that we have three boys and two girls, and the girls challenge the boys, which is nice,” Chan said. “It’s a good group. If they try something that doesn’t work, they go back and try something else; the group discusses it, and then they try again.”

In the 2009 FIRST Lego League challenge for kids ages 9 to 14, there are 14,600 teams comprising 146,000 students from more than 50 countries, from Iceland to Lebanon to Malaysia.

There are more than 475 qualifying events and 89 championship tournaments, with the world competition set to occur in Atlanta in April.

In the competition, kids work with adult mentors to design, build and program robots that can complete real-world missions.

The challenge has two parts; in the project phase, teams identify a problem, create a solution and share it.

In the robot game portion, the kids use technologies like robotics and sensor technology to solve a specific problem, tackling trials like efficiency planning, object avoidance, climbing steep bridges with no guard rails, passenger transport and crash tests.

Eight weeks of competition culminate in tournaments where their robots are put to the test.

The Newport Coast Elementary team came up with what they call a Smart Dash, a wireless device that sits on a car dashboard and tells drivers the speed limit and whether they’re speeding or not.

Another sensor placed on roadsides communicates with the Smart Dash to say what the speed limit is.

The kids spoke to experts at companies like Fisker Automotive and Boeing to gain insight on how their product would work, and spoke with the Newport Beach Police Department about the public safety ramifications.

For the robot game, kids around the world are given the same task and the same 4-by-8-foot mat with obstacles for their robots to deal with.

The kids program their robot to perform certain tasks and respond to problems, and are given up to 400 points based on how well the robot handles the obstacles presented. The Newport Coast team scored 320 points, considered to be very high. They won second place in the project competition and first place overall.

Each child brings their own strength to the table.

Ryan said he liked building and programming the robot best, and that he thought investigating the Smart Dash technology was the hardest part of the process. For his brother Tyler, however, investigating and problem solving was the highlight of the challenge, and practicing with the robot was the most difficult part.

They encouraged kids who are intimidated by science and technology to go for it, and try their hardest.

FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, was founded by inventor Dean Kamen to excite youth about science and technology.

It creates an annual challenge for the FIRST Lego League teams. This year’s challenge, Smart Move, encourages kids to explore innovative solutions to transportation issues.

Overall, FIRST’s competitions for youth reach more than 200,000 students worldwide, who compete on more than 19,000 teams and create more than 17,000 robots.