About 1,000 people, many of them very smart kids, jammed into the Blaisdell Arena yesterday for the annual FIRST LEGO League "Smart Move" state championship.

When 48 teams from all over the state are competing in project presentation, robot performance, technical design and teamwork, everybody searches for an edge in the brainiac fest celebrating inspiration and recognition of science and technology.

So the five-girl team from Moloka'i — Momi Afelin, Cendall Manley, Puakea Domingo and sisters Moriah and Sarah Jenkins — had come up with a new team name. After all, 21st Century DOE Next Navigation Team lacks a certain flair.

The Moloka'i girls, who included students from public and private schools and a home-schooled student, decided to transform themselves into the Moloka'i Monarchs, the first team from Moloka'i to compete in the annual event.

They liked the caterpillar-to-butterfly image.

"We're spreading our wings," they said, "flying on the wind."

This fit nicely with their transportation project presentation "Let's Go Build a Kite," which encompassed the concept of using giant kites to power the Moloka'i Princess ferry between Moloka'i and Maui.

They even had a song to enhance their presentation:

With the cost of gasoline at an ultimate high

Moloka'i is suffering to get our supplies

So they gave us a boat that they call the Princess

But the tickets keep on risin' so it don't convince us

To ride the waves all the way to Maui

So we designed a plan that's quite a WOWI!

Smart Move Smart Move

During the morning part of the competition the girls did their snazzy hip-hop presentation and in the afternoon portion they demonstrated their prowess at guiding their robot through a LEGO obstacle course. That required going around things, into things and parking precisely on designated spots.

There was some difficulty when one of the parts of the robot didn't appear to fit right and had to be tinkered with as the clock ran down.

"It's a little bit frustrating when it doesn't work," Cendall said later.

But their efforts paid off when the Monarchs took first place in the Creative Presentation category.

"I think we bonded a lot as a group, and did well for our first time competing," Moriah said. "We came out of our shells."

As part of their months-long project the girls worked with the SkySail corporation of Hamburg, Germany.

"I thought we did really, really good for our first try," Momi said.

The judges agreed.

Sumeet Saksena, of the East-West Center, who judged the presentation category, said he was impressed by the Monarchs' teamwork, style and "well- designed, well-executed presentation."

He called them charming. "Obviously they had fun."

This year, teams of students 9 to 14 years old were challenged to research and present solutions to gaining efficiency in transportation systems.

Punahou School's Punabots Blue won the overall competition and will attend the national championship in Atlanta in April.

The defending state champs from the 'Iolani Robo Raiders Zoom team designed a solar-powered, computer networked, cell-phone-activated Smart Mobile Access Program that could guide the intrepid traveler from 'Ewa Beach to Tahiti (or any other Point A to Point B) via digital marvels that defy description by mere mortals. That garnered them runner-up this year.