20 May 2016 –Twenty-two robotics students from KfarYona School and Rabin Elementary School will participate in the First Lego League Trash Trek Challenge to be held on June 01 to 04, at the Hoops Dome, Lapu-Lapu, Cebu City, Philippines.

Organized by the First Lego League, the Trash Trek Challenge engages students ages 09 to 16 to explore and find solutions to the world's problem on trash. The challenge has three main parts: project, robot game, and core values. During the challenge, the participants will program an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field (Robot Game), developing a solution to a problem they have identified (Project), all guided by the First Lego League Core Values.

The students, together with their mentors and school officials, visited the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv to present their projects and robot designs for the Cebu meet.  Philippine Ambassador to Israel Neal Imperial welcomed the students and encouraged them to strive for excellence in their respective fields of interests, especially robotics.

As it will be the students' first time to visit the Philippines, Ambassador Imperial encouraged them to get to know their Filipino counterparts better and to explore the tourism sites in the island of Cebu.

The FFL Philippine Islands Invitational 2016 is a major science event for students and will include 50 teams from around the world that won the Trash Trek Challenge at their respective regional tournaments. Apart from Israel, the countries/regions invited to the event include: the US, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Italy, UK, Mexico, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, the US, and Norway. END