40 area teams, having completed four rounds of tournaments over eight weeks, competed in the 11th Annual FIRST LEGO League Championship at Longwood High School March 1.

The Rocky Point GearHeadz won the first place Champion's Award with the Floral Park Brick Heads taking second place.  All teams are judged on four areas: project presentation, robot performance, technical design/programming of the robot and teamwork.

For more details and a full list of winners, visit the School Business Partnership of LI website.

Five students from R. C. Murphy Junior High School bested 19 teams through nine rounds, to take first place at the 2015 Long Island Regional Middle School Science Bowl on March 7.  The "Jeopardy!"-esque competition, held at Brookhaven National Laboratory, covered questions from biology and physics to chemistry.

The students: Reilly Brown, Moira Chimpiri, Keene Lu, Rohan Nagavardhan and Luke Russell, along with their coach Patrick McManus, have earned all expenses paid trips to the national finals in Washington, D.C. taking place April 30 - May 4.

Laurel Kaye of Kings Park has made the cut and is among 100 global candidates vying for a one way trip to Mars.  The 20 year old - who's first word was "moon" - currently attends Duke and is not deterred by the lack of plans for a return to Earth.

The fourth and final round will test the 100 finalists' abilities to handle Mars' harsh conditions and work together as a team.  The final group of 24 would travel to Mars in six four person crews at two year intervals.

Read excerpts from Laurel's blog and some popular questions she's been asked.

John Dewey High School in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn has been running a robotics program for the past seven years.  Comprised of five classes and an after school program, students begin in ninth grade, building a small robot from a kit before moving on to more advanced skills that include trouble shooting, working in teams and competing with other schools.  Interest from girls has increased - they make up 40% of participants - inspiring some to explore engineering careers.