WATERLOO - A group of Irving Elementary School students watched with anticipation as peers from Cedar Falls set up Lego creations on a mat.

Buildings, vehicles, a coal car on tracks, wind turbines, a satellite - all made from Legos - were laid out in front of the students. Then Michelle Swartley, a student at Cedar Falls' Orchard Hill Elementary, pressed a button on a Lego contraption outfitted with wheels.

It moved forward across the mat, pushing a structure that included the wind turbines. At a predetermined spot, the contraption stopped pushing, leaving the structure behind while backing up to where it started.

Mission accomplished.

Or at least the first of various "missions" the little robot was required to perform in a total of 2 1/2 minutes during Lego League competitions last year.

"You have to practice and practice so you can do everything really quick," said coach Kenton Swartley, a Cedar Falls High School teacher.

The Orchard Hill team and its coaches visited the nine Irving students after school Thursday to tell them about Lego League. The competitions are created by an organization called FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

Irving will be one of six new teams in the area and the first in Waterloo Community Schools. In addition, teams will be starting in Traer, at Southdale Elementary and Peet Junior High in Cedar Falls, and two in Denver. There will be 10 area teams this year.

Irving teacher Arleen Cook, one of two team coaches, said 10 students were invited to join based on math scores, their behavior and responsibility level.

As the Orchard Hill students set up the Legos, Irving fifth-grader Irie Jefferson peppered the coaches with questions about the sort of robot he and his schoolmates would be building. Their ability to outfit it with sound was a chief concern.

"I want to make a butler robot monkey," said Jefferson. "I wanted to make it able to sing, and I'm going to download music on it and I want to make it burp. I think it'll be fun."

Teams receive a kit equipped with the Lego Mindstorms robotics invention system. They build and program a robot to complete missions explained in instructions for the competition. This year's theme is "Climate Connections."

After about two months of preparation, teams compete at the regional level. Cedar Falls parent and coach Bruce Newendorp said there will be more than 100 teams across the state this year. The regional meets will whittle that number down to about 70 teams that will compete at Iowa State University.

"I'm very excited to go somewhere where other kids are to see what they've created," said Irving fifth-grader Michaela Fishback.

"It'll be a lot of fun," added classmate Rachel Milligan. "I'm hoping we can make a really good robot, maybe win."

Teams can earn up to 400 points in the competitions based on how their robot carries out its missions. Judges also look at factors like teamwork, research and a report students must complete and interview questions they pose to the teams in awarding points.

"Last year's theme was, like, energy conserving," said Orchard Hill fifth-grader Kayla Neese. "All the missions we did were around saving energy."

In one of the missions, students had to move an oil barrel, but carefully. "You got a 40-point reduction if you dropped the oil barrel in the ocean, because you're polluting the oceans," said fifth-grader Libby Swartley.

Kenton Swartley said it is usually impossible to complete all the missions in 2 1/2 minutes, which also costs the team points.

"You just try to do whatever you can and score as many points as you can," he said.

Jan Newendorp, another Cedar Falls coach, said although that is what excites the students, it is not the main point.

"It's really not about the final score. It's the process," she said. "The whole idea is to encourage kids to get into math and science."

Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507

or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.