The St. Mary Parish School FIRST LEGO League team achieved a top-seven placement at the First LEGO League Challenge regional tournament held by Marquette University High in November and will be advancing to sectionals on Dec.16.

The FIRST LEGO League Challenge (formerly known as FIRST LEGO League) is an international competition organized by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) —  a global nonprofit organization that prepares young people for the future through a suite of inclusive, team-based robotics programs for ages 4-18 for elementary and middle school students. Each year in August, FIRST LEGO League Challenge teams are introduced to a scientific and real-world challenge for teams to focus and research on.

The robotics part of the competition involves designing and programming Lego robots to complete tasks. The students work out a solution to a problem related to the theme and then meet for regional, national, and international tournaments to compete, share their knowledge, compare ideas, and display their robots.