Children proved that there is actually a good reason to keep playing with LEGO toys at the Iowa FIRST LEGO League Championship on Saturday.

The annual competition has teams of children ranging in age from nine to 14 build a robot made of LEGO bricks and LEGO Mindstorms software kits.

The 66 teams competing this year had a little over four months to make a robot and program it to complete certain challenges by itself, with little assistance from the team.

“This is really a great showcase for the effort the kids put into their robots,” said Camille Sloan Schroeder, program coordinator for engineering academic and student affairs.

The theme for this year’s competition was “Nano Quest,” and focused on challenges similar to the challenges faced with making and operating nanotechnology.

Challenges ranged from moving pizza “molecules” onto the picture of a head drawn on a table to removing a blue “atom” from an unstable table without touching any surrounding red “atoms.” This challenge in particular is applicable to nanotechnology, because at the molecular level all atoms are in a constant state of motion and are unstable, so getting to a particular molecule is an extremely tricky challenge.

A great number of students volunteered to help organize the event and keep it running smoothly.

“This is my first year helping out, but I’m definitely coming back,” said Brian Frank, sophomore in civil engineering. “It’s a unique experience that’s really a lot of fun, and I’m really impressed with what they’re doing here.”

Most student volunteers signed up to help in November and were responsible for helping everyone around Howe Hall and Hoover Hall, where the competition was held.

Carter Chapman, 11, said this was his first time at a statewide competition, and said he will definitely make a return.

“There’s really a rush that you get when you see your robot doing well,” Chapman said. “It’s quite a thrill.”

Chapman learned about the LEGO League from the fall introduction to students at Taft Middle School in Cedar Rapids. He helped form a team, Biobots 876, and they began working on their robot in August, with backing from their sponsors.

“Rockwell Collins helped us out with a few parts after we won our school LEGO competition, which was really helpful,” he said.

It certainly isn’t cheap for an 11-year-old to start his own team. After all of the parts, programs and practice space were paid for, Chapman estimated his team spent about $1,000.

There’s certainly a lot to gain for the winner, though. The best overall team will receive a prize package from Rockwell Collins, one of the premier aerospace industries in the country. The winners also have a choice to go either to Atlanta for the FIRST LEGO League Nano Quest World Festival or to compete in the World Open Tournament in Oslo, Norway.

With many teams from around the world scheduled to be competing in Atlanta, there may be times in the near future that the members of the winning team will go straight for their LEGO blocks when their parents mention homework.