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MAKAWAO - Six teams in the First Lego League Robotics Maui tournament advanced to compete at the state level next month on Oahu.

The eliminations were held on Saturday at the Seabury Hall gym. Students ages 9-14 from local schools and 4-H clubs built and programmed small Lego robots to perform certain tasks within a limited amount of time.

The qualifying teams were the Emmanuel Lutheran Rambots, the Sapphires 4-H Club, the Molokai 21st Century NXT Navigators girls' team, the Seabury Hall Spartanbots, Lanai Torch'em and Team Havoc.

Kaunakakai Elementary and Groovy Girlz 4-H were named as alternates.

Special awards were presented to the Kamalii Elementary team for teamwork, to the Spartanbots for robot design, to the NXT Navigators for their project and to the Rambots for robot performance.

The competition required student teams to construct robots out of Lego plastic building bricks, a project meant to build awareness of real-world transportation issues in the community.

The state championship will be held at the Neal Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu.