On Saturday, November 11 the Turning Point School "Green Tornadoes" took the top spot out of 25 teams from around the Los Angeles area who were competing for the chance to advance to the regional competition in the FIRST LEGO League Hydro-Dynamics Global Challenge. Turning Point School served as the host location for the regional qualifying tournament.

FIRST LEGO League is an international competition that invites elementary and middle school students to research a real-world problem and then develop a solution. They also must design, build, and program a robot to address the problem they have been tasked with, then complete various challenges on a table-top playing field.

The theme for this year's challenge was HYDRO DYNAMICS. The 25 teams who competed in the regional qualifying round on Saturday were tasked with learning all about water and then coming up with solutions to improve the process of finding, transporting, using, or disposing of it.

Turning Point School had two teams competing-the "Gold Tornadoes" consisting of middle school students, and the "Green Tornadoes" composed of upper elementary students. The Green team earned the "Champions Award"-first place overall – and will compete in the Greater LA FIRST LEGO League Championship in December.

In the judging room they scored high in robot design, project design, and core values. They also scored in the top 40% for Robot Performance, where students stayed remarkably composed and collected while programming their robots to perform timed tasks.

"Our Green Team excelled in the areas mentioned above but it was the individual judging room where their apparent poise and confidence earned them the "Champion's Award," said head of school Dr. Laura Konigsberg.

"They won this competition because, in the absence of adult teachers and coaches, they were able to shine by demonstrating their robot and explaining their thinking and development process clearly and articulately. We are so proud of our innovators, and of the learning that they spearheaded."

Turning Point School is an independent, coeducational day school in Culver City enrolling students in Primary (2 years, nine months) to Level 8. A nonprofit, nonsectarian institution, Turning Point School is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and the California Association of Independent Schools. Turning Point School is also a proud member of the Council of International Schools

. To learn more visit http://www.turningpointschool.org.