JERICHO, NY (TIP): TechnoQueens’ – a Jr. First Lego League team comprised of six young and bright girls from Elementary Schools in Jericho, NY – goes on to win the Top Award in FIRST World Championship held in Detroit, Michigan in the week of April 27th. TechnoQueens represented Long Island in this World Expo with 55+ teams from other participating countries and across the USA. This Rookie team won many hearts with their prominent presentation skills, impressing the judges with their sound research and engaged kids, families of other participating teams with their innovative model design. The team received the most coveted and voted upon ‘Team Choice’ Award, with each of the participating team casting their ballots on key aspects for their favorite team in the Expo. At the end of the first day of the Expo, Top 3 teams were chosen for the top spot and on another round of secret ballot votes – the winner was announced at the Awards Ceremony. Other 2 competing teams were from China and Taiwan. TechnoQueens exhibited all Core values of the program, creativity of their solution, outstanding Lego Model and ‘ShowMe’ team Poster.

TechnoQueens won the ‘Research & Discovery’ Award for their Learning journey around Project Solution ‘VillAquaTech’ – bringing clean water to ideal and remote Village communities in the world. As part of the People Pipeline Campaign with WaterAid, the girls raised around 3000$ and were able to bring Clean water and Toilets to kids in school in Nicaragua. Helping Community and making an impact to the world, even if it’s small, is a key proud part of TechnoQueens journey in this year’s Aqua Adventure program.

All this started in September 2017, when the girls started to come together through common friends and families from nearby schools in Jericho and decided to form their own team. Coach, Rohit Bhatia, father of one of the girls put the team together (Ria Bhatia, Amneet Kaur, Aarna Tyagi, Falak Doshi, Risha Bansal and Sahana Patel) and there’s never been looking back since. Girls named their team as they believe Queens rule the world and so do they in this Technological-driven modern world!  The girls put their own team Slogan – ‘Teamwork is Dreamwork’ as they believe doing things together as a team is better than doing things by yourself. Girls designed their own logo and decided to use Pink as their team color – and are very excited to see their Coach wear it proudly.

The team met at least once a week throughout the year to brainstorm on their project ideas; discussed and voted on the solutions. Each girl would work hands-on learning to program their robot and do different missions and then share with rest of the team. To learn and explore the world of water as part of this year’s Aqua Adventure theme, the girls visited various Water authorities in Long Island to learn about water transportation and, filtration processes. Girls also met various water experts including Water Engineers, Hydrologists, CEO, R&D experts in the field of Water. They also enjoyed presenting their solutions to Schools, local University, Museums and Water Experts.

Over this journey since last year, TechnoQueens have become best friends, celebrate various festivals, events, Birthday parties together. They take pride in watching out for each other and demonstrate their Core values in their day to day lives.

It’s of paramount importance in this world to promote our young girls from diverse communities and encourage them to embrace STEM programs and get exposed to science and engineering in their early phases of life. TechnoQueens have embraced the opportunity offered to them and are now looking forward to taking the leap to next level of FIRST Lego League program aimed at kids 10-14 years old. They are eager to learn and are already exploring the world of Space as part of next year’s FLL ‘Into the Orbit’ theme.  Let’s go TechnoQueens – Sky is the Limit!