The 21st season Turkey final of the FIRST LEGO League Challenge tournaments, one of the world's largest youth and children's organizations and organized under the name Science Heroes Meet in Türkiye, was held at Fuar İzmir. 27 teams from 70 cities and over 600 students participated in the two-day tournament. The cups were presented to the winning teams in a ceremony attended by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Mayor Dr. Zafer Levent Yıldır.
The awards were given to their winners at the 21st Season Turkey Finals of the Science Heroes Meet/FIRST LEGO League Challenge tournaments organized by the Science Heroes Association in cooperation with the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality and İZFAŞ at Fuar İzmir. This year, the tournament, organized with the theme of SUBMERGED-Ocean explorers, was attended by 500 teams and approximately 5 thousand children and young people. After 17 local tournaments, 27 teams from 70 cities competed to be ranked in the Türkiye finals and to participate in the international tournament.
Prizes were given to the winning teams
Within the scope of the theme, teams that deeply examined the problems encountered by people exploring the oceans developed innovative solutions to the problems and tried to complete tasks made from LEGO models in order to reinforce these concepts with the robots they built and coded. The teams that won the national tournament were given their awards in a ceremony. İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Mayor Dr. Zafer Levent Yıldır presented the award to the İBB Tech Pendik team in the “Inspiring” category. Science Heroes Association Board of Directors Chair Prof. Dr. Sıddıka Semahat Demir thanked İzmir Metropolitan Municipality for their support and presented Yıldır with a plaque.
Yildirim: You are the future of the country
Speaking at the ceremony, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Mayor Dr. Zafer Levent Yıldır stated that young people will shape the future of this country and the world, and said, “We are experiencing new things, a new world is being established. There are brand new concepts in this world now. You are the future of İzmir, the country and the world. You are obliged to know and understand all of these very well, work accordingly and do what is necessary. Sustainability is very important. The solution we find for a problem today may be our biggest problem tomorrow. You need to think long and hard about how you will underline the concept of sustainability. It is not enough to just find a solution, it is absolutely necessary to see that this solution is also a solution that provides sustainability.”
Demir: Hope is in science
Science Heroes Association Board of Directors Chair Prof. Dr. Sıddıka Semahat Demir said, “I have learned a lot from you. We will continue to work hard for every study we carry out under the roof of our association. We believe that with every study we will carry out in the light of science, we will approach our dream of a better world step by step. We will continue to work by saying ‘Hope is in science’.”
They found solutions to the problems
More than 600 middle and high school students were accompanied by 150 coaches in the tournament. Participants, consisting of 9-16 teams between the ages of 4-10, were evaluated in two areas. Under the leadership of a coach, the teams produced innovative projects and developed step-by-step solutions to the problems they encountered within the framework of the determined theme. At the same time, they completed the tasks in the models specially designed for the season theme with robots they coded and designed in 2,5 minutes.
9 teams qualified to participate in the international tournament. The championship award went to KRUSTY KRUBS team from Özel Çakabey High School, the second place award went to FLAZIA team from TED Atakent College Esenyurt Campus High School, the third place award went to SPARK team from Ordu Giresun Bahçeşehir College Enver Yücel Campus Science and Technology High School, the fourth place award went to ROBOGOBİ team from Yücel Koyuncu Science and Art Center, and the fifth place award went to ORENDA team from İstek Özel Uluğbey Science High School. TRIDENT, ENTERPRISE JR, ROBOTAV, YDROBOTIX teams also qualified to participate in the international tournament.
