Blog Post
Geek Pride Day
by articia
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"Towel Day", "Glorious 25th of May", or "Star Wars Day", whatever you prefer to call it, May 25th is Geek Pride Day and what better way to celebrate it than by visiting your local library? You don't have to be a Sci-Fi geek, or a math geek to celebrate Geek Pride Day, just celebrate whatever you "geek". "Whatever you geek, the public library supports you." Geek The Library reminds us that "No matter who you are, there are things you are passionate about—things you geek. The Geek the Library project is a community public awareness campaign aimed at spreading the word about the vital and growing role of your public library, and to raise awareness about the critical funding issues many U.S. public libraries face." Think of all the resources your library has to offer, be they entertainment like Star Wars or Douglas Adams books or movies, Homework Help or Test Prep, Foreign Language Materials or Foreign Language Learning from our Services and Research pages that you have access to through our website, our super nifty new Orion Starblast 4.5 Astro Reflector Dobsonian Telescope, or one of our neat Science To Go Kits from our Unusual Stuff to Borrow collection.
Blog Post
National Library Week Event: Library Lego League: Lego Robot Wrestling
by hillary dorwart
Saturday April 14, 2012: 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
It's a battle to the finish as you build and battle your champion robot!!
Two robots enter the ring, only one leaves victorious! Battle teams will assemble to create the most devastating robot possible. Build your demolition demon, program your plan of attack, then release the un-holy terror that is robot wrestling! Prizes are for the champions!
This event is for teens (grades 6 - 12).
Blog Post
Brick Bash 2012
by prlhw
Craving LEGOS? Join the community of Ann Arbor for some FREE Lego fun at the 2012 Brick Bash!
The event will feature displays of Lego creations crafted by talented Lego hobbyists from near and far! Even you can get in on the fun - there will be tables piled high with thousands of LEGO, Duplo, and Bionicle pieces for you to craft your very own creations. In addition, Bricks for Brains will have fun and educational building projects for everyone to take part in. For more information, see the list of featured exhibits and activities.
The event will take place at Morris Lawrence Building on the campus of the Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan and last all day Saturday, March 24th from 11am to 6pm. Both admission and parking are free!
Blog Post
6th Annual LEGO Contest Winners!
by erin
If you missed this year's 6th Annual LEGO contest held at Weber's Inn last night you missed the highlight of some Ann Arborites' year! Breaking all previous records this year's contest was the biggest ever with 206 entries in 6 categories: Preschool, Grades K-2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12 and Adult. And about 600 people attended the awards ceremony last night too! Thanks to all of this year's participants and we look forward to seeing you next year. Sometime soon there will be photographs of every winner's LEGO project linked here and permanently found on our contest page. Without further ado, the winners (after the jump).
Preschool
1st Place: Adit Vuppala
Runner-Up: Ryan Grant
Honorable Mention: Ellie Finnegan
Best Motorized Project: Ronald Chen
Best Architectural/Engineering Project: Nakshatr Gupta
Coolest Robot: Geunbi Bae
Best Vehicle: Jack Van De Ryt
Most Creative: Sam Rietz
Most Sophisticated: Moses Strom
AADL LEGO Master Builder: Sanchia Gupta
Grades K-2
1st Place: Hudhaifah Rehman
Runner-Up: Nicholas Lukela
Honorable Mention: Elliot Varnum
Best Motorized Project: Gabe Johnson
Best Architectural/Engineering Project: Ansh Chauhan
Coolest Robot: Rhys Burman
Best Vehicle: Noah Shin
Most Creative: Lili Bucklin
Most Sophisticated: Heather Marano
AADL LEGO Master Builder: Hugh McCurren
Best Tethered Aircraft: Malcolm Wilson-Ahlstrom
Grades 3-5
1st Place: Cortland Toschlog-Green
Runner-Up: Alex Meints
Honorable Mention: Claire Pufahl
Best Motorized Project: Robby Duquette
Best Architectural/Engineering Project: Leah Fleming
Coolest Robot: Logan Stafford
Best Vehicle: Celeste Forester
Most Creative: Beatrix Dergis
Most Sophisticated: Colin Pufahl
AADL LEGO Master Builder: Andrew Yang
Grades 6-8
1st Place: Michael Mishler
Runner-Up: Casimir Mankowski
Honorable Mention: Noah Luntzlara
Best Motorized Project: Jack & Robby Haviland
Best Architectural/Engineering Project: Sarah Remillard
Coolest Robot: Olivia Popp
Best Vehicle: Mark Bruey
Most Creative: Matthew Remillard
Most Sophisticated: Justin Forester
AADL LEGO Master Builder: Aidan Brown-Danovi
Coolest Robbery: Max Cooley
Grades 9-12
1st Place: Logan Benton
Runner-Up: John Behrendt
Honorable Mention: Cameron McLaughlin
Best Motorized Project: Alexander Deatrick
Best Architectural/Engineering Project: Ian McKenny
Best Vehicle: Austin Merrick
Most Creative: Nick Lemerand
Most Sophisticated: Avery Feingold
AADL LEGO Master Builder: Andrew Lemerand
Adult
1st Place: LiLi
Runner-Up: Brenda Shih
Honorable Mention: Kevin & Jennifer Bruey
Best Architectural/Engineering Project: Virginia Falk
Coolest Robot: Jason Zao
Best Vehicle: Tresna Taylor
Most Creative: Amy Remillard
Most Sophisticated: Peter Alway
AADL LEGO Master Builder: Allen Ano
Blog Post
It's almost LEGO Contest Time!
by erin
Hopefully you have been working hard on your LEGO project for this week's upcoming 6th Annual LEGO Contest held at Weber's Inn this Thursday! If you haven't be sure to read the rules and guidelines and get cracking! Preschoolers all the way through Adults are invited to enter or come look at this always exciting contest. The doors will be open for the public to come take a look from 6:00-8:00 PM with the Award Ceremony to immediately follow at 8:00 PM. As always there will be gift cards to Target for the winners, special ribbons and LEGO trophies! Hope to see you there! Check out our video of some of last year's winners.
Blog Post
5th Annual LEGO® Contest Results!
by erin
Yesterday was our 5th annual LEGO® Contest and once again it was one of the highlights of the year! We had 173 entries from preschool age through Adults (this was just the first year they were invited so adults plan your projects for next summer!). This year we also debuted custom-made AADL LEGO® Trophies - complete with an AADL mini-fig! The trophies were made for us by The Original Brick Engraver, Tommy Armstrong. The lucky 1st place winners in each of the six age categories each received a trophy. The top three finishers in each category received gift cards to Target in the amounts of $35, $25 and $15 respectively. Ribbons were also given out in the special categories. The judges reserved the right to "switch-up" some of the categories where appropriate so you may notice a few different categories listed below. A special thanks to the judges, Eli Neiburger, AADL Associate Director of IT and Production & Amanda Sari Perez and Josh Valdes, both of All Hands Active an Ann Arbor Maker's community. Our "little" contest including a list of the winners' made the Ann Arbor Journal paper and online versions and was also picked up by the American Library Association's weekly news too. Congrats to all of the participants and without further ado please congratulate the winners (with photos of winning entries to follow soon):
PRESCHOOL:
1st Place - Hudhaifah Reman
Runner-Up - Willow Denomm
Honorable Mention - Elise Meints
Most Awesome Toilet - Ionie Steadle
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Maris Rhizal
Coolest Robot - Andrew VanderMolen
Best Vehicle - Kenneth Jiang
Most Creative - Stephanie Hadley
Most Sophisticated - Jameson Szumko
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Kayli Doom
GRADES K-2
1st Place - Simon Schafer-Klerkx
Runner-Up - Colin Finnegan
Honorable Mention - Alina Mankowski
Best Book-Inspired Project - Abigail VanderMolen
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Elvin Poskovic
Coolest Robot - Liam McLaughlin
Best Vehicle - Samantha Devaney
Most Creative - Andrew Young
Most Sophisticated - Nathan Yang
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Aidan Smith
GRADES 3-5
1st Place - Casimir Mankowski
Runner-Up - Ben Birdsall
Honorable Mention - Tony Tian
Best Game-Inspired Project - Isaac Mangold
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Mark Bruey
Most Awesome Toilet - Celeste Forester
Best Vehicle - Gavin Nossol
Most Creative - Evan & Ella Markley
Most Sophisticated - Miles Aikens
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Sarah Remillard
Most Delicious - Stuart Dobson
GRADES 6-8
1st Place - Victor Boyse-Peacor
Runner-Up - Alex Wochna
Honorable Mention - Lee Thompson-Kolan
Best Motorized Project - Alexander Przybylski Deatrick
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Andrew & Emma Alson
Coolest Robot - Ji Ho Hyun & Philip Rew
Best Vehicle - Matthew Remillard
Mose Creative - Noah Luntzlara
Most Sophisticated - Avi Covrigaru, Gabe Linderman, John & Aaron Crane
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Hebe Clarke
GRADES 9-12
1st Place - Jordan Steiff
Runner-Up - John Behrendt
Honorable Mention - Peter Zieske
Best Motorized Project - Logan Benton
Best Vehicle - Patrick Weisener
Least Creative - Sam King
Most Sophisticated - Cameron McLaughlin
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Nick Lemerand
ADULTS
1st Place - Peter Alway
Runner-Up - Virginia Falk
Honorable Mention - LiLi
Best Vehicle - John Harris
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Leonard Blach
UPDATE Now with video:
Blog Post
It's Contest Time @ the Library! Lego & Photo Contest Guidelines!
by erin
If it's summer it must be time for our annual contests! This year is our 5th annual Lego Contest & we're inviting ADULTS in on the fun!! We're also pleased to announce our Make It Happen in Ann Arbor Photo Contest! Use your leisurely summer time to focus your creativity and take a chance on winning! In order to enter either contest participants must read and follow the rules and guidelines.
Children, teens and adults are invited to enter the 5th Annual Lego Contest & the Make It Happen Photo Contest. Winners of both contests will receive gift cards to Target. Once again the Lego contest will take place at Weber's Inn (3050 Jackson Ave) on Thursday, August 5. The Make It Happen Photo Contest Award's Ceremony will be on Wednesday, July 28 @ the Downtown Library. For complete rules & submission guidelines for the Lego contest click here. For the Make It Happen photo contest rules & guidelines click here.
Blog Post
The Ultimate in LEGO Books
by manz
LEGOs are awesome. They were awesome when I was a kid, and they are awesome now when I play with them with other peoples’ kids. The library has a slew of books for LEGO maniacs of all levels. My top two: LEGO Star Wars: A Visual Dictionary, and it's just that. It has the best images and descriptions of all things LEGO & Star Wars. I could stare at the pages for hours. For a history of LEGOs, info on various sets that have been manufactured, and descriptions of the theme parks, etc., check out The LEGO Book.
And it’s not too early to save the date for AADL’s annual LEGO contest on August 5! Check the new AXIS brochure for details.
Blog Post
The 4th Annual LEGO Contest Winners are In!
by erin
Another summer, another LEGO contest and good times were had by all! This year we had 155 entries and over 300 people attended the Awards Ceremony! The top three winners in each of the five age categories (Preschool, K-2, 3-5, 6-8 & 9-12) received gift certificates to Toys R Us and medals. Special thanks to our hardworking judges: Eli Neiburger, AADL Associate Director of IT and Product Development, Eric Klooster, AADL IT Application Developer and finally Langel Bookbinder, Founder and Proprietor of battleofthebits.org. The judges needed every second of their three hours of deliberation to make the hard decisions this year!
Congratulations to all of our winners! And see you next year!
Click read more to see all of this year's winners.
Preschool:
1st Place - Hudhaifah Rehman
Runner-Up - Kenneth Jiang
Honorable Mention - Natalie Leffler
Best Motorized - Tommy Simon
Best Architectural/Engineering - Lucy Cassell-Kelley
Coolest Robot - Kairi Kowalski
Best Vehicle - Kevin Song
Most Creative - Andrew VanderMolen
Most Sophisticated - Hudhaifah Rehman
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Eliot Schoolmaster
Grades K-2:
1st Place - Vishrut Khandelwal
Runner-Up - Anisha Fujii
Honorable Mention - Forrest Hadley
Best Motorized - Xander Doom
Best Architectural/Engineering - Evan & Ella Markley
Coolest Robot - Ben Birdsall & Scott Knudsen (tie)
Best Vehicle - Walden Jones-Perpich
Most Creative - Rachel Gowell
Most Sophisticated - Alex Szumko
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Colin Finnegan
Grades 3-5:
1st Place - Peyton Miller
Runner-Up - Calvin Mayman
Honorable Mention - Xavier Iniguez
Best Motorized - Benjamin Eric Cohen
Best Architectural/Engineering - Spencer Steiff
Coolest Robot - Gavin Nossal
Best Vehicle - Joe Schaldenbrand
Most Creative - Ben Gowell
Most Sophisticated - Peter Jacobs & Jayson Song (tie)
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Eric Xu
Grades 6-8:
1st Place - Caleb Jones
Runner-Up - Ryan George
Honorable Mention - Matthew Remillard
Best Motorized - Marshal Knott
Best Architectural/Engineering - Andreas Prawdzik
Coolest Robot - Christopher Williams
Best Vehicle - Kevin McGregor
Most Creative - Nicole Xu & John Crane, Aaron Crane, and Avi Covrigaru (tie)
Most Sophisticated - Noah Luntzlara
AADL LEGO® Master Builder - Josh Goodman and Andrew Lemerand
Grades 9-12
1st Place - Peter Zieske
Runner-Up - Elizabeth Deatrick
Honorable Mention - John Behrendt
Best Architectural/Engineering - William Anderson
Best Vehicle - Nick Lemerand
Blog Post
It's Lego and Manga Contest Time Again! Contest Guidelines Released!
by erin
If it's summer it must be time for our annual Lego and Manga Contests! Use the summer to focus your creativity and maybe you will win! In order to enter either contest participants must read and follow the rules and guidelines. Children and teens aged preschool to 12th grade are invited to enter the 4th Annual Lego Contest. This year the Lego contest award ceremony will take place at Weber's Inn (3050 Jackson Ave) on Monday, August 10 @ 8:00 PM. For complete submission guidelines and the talent release form click here. Top finishers will receive gift certificates to Toys R Us, and we'll have medals for winners of the special categories!
It's our 3rd Annual Manga Drawing Contest for grades K-12. The award ceremony will be on Monday, July 27 @ 7:00 PM in the Downtown Youth Room. For complete submission guidelines and the talent release form click here. Top finishers will receive gift certificates for Wizzywig Collectibles!