And one Willow Glen team robot performed so well at the Dec. 6 regional it was invited to the Northern California State Tournament on Dec. 7.

The team, called the Techno Hackers, ended up placing 29th out of 63 elementary and middle school teams.

According to Willow Glen Elementary robotics head coach Eric Strasilla, 3,000 teams nationwide participate in the FIRST LEGO League, considered the "little league" of First Robotics Competition—which Willow Glen High School participates in. In each state, there are several regional competitions and a state competition. Only one or two teams from each state that do exceptionally well at state competitions qualify for the world competition.

FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, has partnered with the LEGO Company to celebrate science and technology with youth ages 9 to 14. Because of the age range, elementary schools like Willow Glen competed against and even beat middle school robotics teams.

Under the supervision of Strasilla and assistant coach Mitch Kahn, the youth worked with LEGO bricks and other gadgets that were sent to them from FIRST LEGO like sensors, motors and gears to build each robot.

Strasilla and Kahn, who both come from professional engineering backgrounds, assisted the children with the difficult portions of robot computer programming principles, helping the students construct and program each unique robot invention. Once the programming for each robot was finished on the computer at school, the information was transferred via an infrared light from the computer to the robot.

Although the coaches have children attending the school, neither has a child on the team. They are hoping that once their children reach the fourth grade, they will be interested in participating in the program.

"These kids have just blown me away with what they've learned," Strasilla says about the team's growth. "They came in only knowing how to put LEGOs together and now they have programming skills and have learned teamwork. This experience was very rewarding for me."

Now that many of the children possess more than just basic robot-building skills, some are excited to see what they can do next.

Ten-year-old Lauren Potts says that before she joined the team, she never knew how much could be done with basic LEGO blocks. Now, with her robotics experience under her belt, she is confident that she can do even bigger and better things with robots in the future.

"I'm going to ask my parents for a robot kit for Christmas so I can program it to clean up the clothes in my room for me," she says, grinning. "I hope when I get to middle school, I can be on their team, too."

Fourth-grader Ryan Tobiason says his favorite part of the robotics tournaments was the music played at the event. He says the "hamster dance" was played, as well as the YMCA song and music from the San Jose Sharks games.

"I've always wanted to run a robot," says 9-year-old Tobiason. "I decided to be on the team because I would learn more about teamwork, science and technology."

Strasilla says the initial reason Tobiason joined was because there was a girl he liked who was already on the team. Strasilla didn't know how much Tobiason would contribute to the team since he joined under interesting circumstances, but the head coach proudly says that the boy ended up being one of the "most gung-ho contributors to the team."

Along with the coaches, another avid supporter of the program is Willow Glen Elementary School Principal Dayle D'Anna. She went to see the youth practice before the school competition but says she had no idea what a big deal the actual competition would be until she went to watch the tournament at Gunderson High School.

"There were four or five tasks that the robots had to accomplish," she says. "I was quite amazed at the complexity of it all. It took a lot of poise, calmness and focus."

After watching the regional competition, D'Anna says, she is even considering becoming a judge at a future robotics match.

"It takes so much to make this all happen," she says. "I'm proud of the endurance the kids had to stick with it all year."

D'Anna says she also planned to have the team showcase their robotic skills in front of the entire school to encourage the younger children to sign up for the team when they reach the fourth grade.

The fourth- and fifth-grade students at Willow Glen Elementary were split into four teams in September after the 22 children received this year's challenge, Mission Mars, from the sport's international organizer, FIRST LEGO League.

Once the students had the challenge information, they joined countless youth from all over the country in the quest to build a robot capable of winning high marks.

To make the process fair, all students were given eight weeks to build each robot out of LEGOs to compete in their respective competitions.

The four teams at Willow Glen Elementary recently competed in their final robotics competitions for the year at Gunderson High School. All four teams were invited to the San Jose Unified School District regional competition.

Potts, who competed on the Techno Hackers, says she also hopes more people get involved in robotics at her school because it's fun and there is so much to learn.

"I'd tell people who are thinking of joining that it is just a really great time," she says.

For more information about mentoring youth on next year's robotics team, contact Willow Glen Elementary School at 408. 535.6265. No prior knowledge of robotics is required to become a mentor.