MARIETTA — Twenty-five teams from Cobb and surrounding counties participated in a robotics competition at Saturday’s FIRST LEGO League qualifier at East Cobb Middle School.

The overall winners of Saturday’s competition were the Robo Carrots, RoboEttes, Robot Warriors, Simple as Pie 4.0, Bells Ferry’s Team Ella, Daniell Middle School, Robo Spartans Jr. and Cyber Pandas. These teams will move forward and compete in the super regional qualifier in Gwinnett County in mid-January.

Wheeler High School robotics teacher Julia Barry, who organized the competition, said the contest has been a rewarding experience for her and the Wheeler students who helped her.

The fourth- through eighth-grade students picked out the kits and have spent the past several weeks building and perfecting their LEGO-based robots.

Bells Ferry Elementary School teacher and robotics team coach Theresa Bass said the students picked out a “great” kit.

“I use it in my own high school robotics classes,” Barry said. “It’s a program that mimics that programming environment. They have to build robots using motors … and sensors.”

For many of the teams on Saturday, it was the first time that the students had ever been judged or been around other teams because most students do not typically begin competing until late in elementary school.

Students are judged on “gracious” professionalism, core values, developing a solution for the robot mission field, the design of their robots and how innovative they were in their designs.

“It’s supposed to model the engineering process that most companies use,” Barry said. “We treat (student teams) like little companies. We insist that they help each other out. Don’t yell at volunteers and work with us and each other graciously.”

The LEGO kits, which are reusable year after year, have 1,000-plus pieces, including belts, wheels, connectors, gears and additional structure elements, said Bass.

The kit includes all the components needed to build and program a robot capable of completing a set of challenges, Bass said. The cost of a mission field kit, which is what the robots move around on, is $65, and the robots themselves are valued at $420 each.

General Electric paid for one of the Bells Ferry’s teams, Bass said, and student fees helped pay for a second team’s $225 registration fee, mission field and robot kits, $50 competition fees and team shirts if needed.

Bass’ school brought two teams to the competition this year.

“FIRST LEGO League is an amazing opportunity to watch boys and girls turn into problem-solvers as a team,” Bass said. “They learn that in order to be successful, they must rely on each other.”

The teams at Bells Ferry are made up of fourth- and fifth-graders, and the only guideline they require of the kids is that they keep up with their schoolwork and are team players.

“My favorite part is watching a child who has struggled to complete a mission or figure out a problem be successful in that area,” she said. “When they do, their excitement and smiles fill me with a sense of pride and accomplishment.”

This is the second year Bells Ferry fifth-grader Zack Field has participated in the qualifier.

“I do LEGOs all the time at my house,” Field said. “I just like robots and doing this with my friends.”

The teams at Bells Ferry, Salmon and Ella, which are named after the bacteria salmonella, have been preparing for the competition for the last few weeks. Team Ella placed in the top eight teams and will be participating in the state qualifier on Jan. 14, 2012.

Teasley Elementary School’s David Monroe, who coaches their team for an after-school program, said this is the first year the school has had a boys and girls team. The team names are the “Gladiators” and the “Tech Girls.”

“I just love watching them build this and participate in the program,” he said. “At the end of the day, they know that they did this and did an amazing job.”