A favorite childhood toy became a learning tool as Lego robots battled at the FIRST Lego League Regional Competition held on the University campus on Saturday.

Five teams, ranging in age from fourth grade to high school, participated in this year's challenge, "Mission to Mars," which required the students to develop robots to perform certain tasks that they might have to do on Mars, such as launching boulders.

Chris Sattler, regional coordinator liaison and coach of the Bartlett Robo Crushers, said the competition began as a high school robotics event, but evolved to include younger kids when FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and Lego combined forces to develop the new program.

Students competed in four areas — teamwork, research, technical design and performance; with awards given for each category. The robots were made solely of Lego materials and a computer software program in which students programmed certain movements on the computer and then downloaded the information into the robots.

The robots had a certain amount of time to perform tasks and received points for their completion. The competition also included an interview session to judge teamwork and a play to demonstrate knowledge about Mars.

"The competition provides not only exposure to technology and a first taste of programming, but also (gives students the opportunity to) work as a team and research in depth in a scientific area," Sattler said.

While this was the sixth annual Lego League Challenge, it was the first regional competition in the area.

Dr. Susan Linnemeyer, director of special programs for the College of Engineering, said she volunteered to host the competition in part to expose girls to engineering.

"Often girls are turned off to math and science around the middle school age, so the fourth to fifth grades are a great age to get them interested before their peers say it's not cool," Linnemeyer said.

There are only two all-girl teams in the state, she added.

Saturday's competition had a majority of boys and only one all-girl team, the only team from the area in the competition, Urbana's Home Hi Middle School for Girls.

Meghan Bannon, sophomore in engineering and one of the coaches for Home Hi's Seņoritas, said the seventh grade class, nine girls, participated in this program as a part of their curriculum.

"The main purpose (of the competition) is to introduce girls at such a young age to engineering, math and science so they can get experience so they're not discouraged like many girls are."

The teams started preparing mid-September, Bannon added, with coaches meeting twice a week and the students meeting every Thursday. Night sessions were added as the competition neared.

Brigitte Pieke, founder and director of Home Hi, said the girls gained teamwork experience, developed an understanding of computers, learned skills to present the results and practiced public speaking through this project.

Kate Hosier, a seventh grader at Home Hi, said that the robotics program was a good combination of arts and science.

"I'm an artsy kind of person, and in a way robotics is artistic; you need to be creative. If not, you can't think of different ideas for the Legos," Hosier said.

Home Hi won second place in the competition and will be advancing to the state competition on Dec. 13.