FIRST ® LEGO® League Challenge makes STEM inspiring and fun

FIRST ® LEGO® League Challenge is the oldest of three divisions of FIRST LEGO League, created to inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding, and design skills through fun hands-on STEM learning and robotics

All FIRST ® programs are built on a foundation of Core Values, celebrating discovery, impact, inclusion, innovation, teamwork and fun.

What have teams been doing?

For roughly 12 weeks, teams of students ages 9-16* have engaged in research, problem-solving, coding, and engineering – building and programming a LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime or LEGO MINDSTORMS® robot and conducting a research project to identify and solve a relevant real-world problem related to the annual theme. FIRST ® LEGO® League Challenge is the oldest of three divisions of FIRST LEGO League, created to inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding, and design skills through fun hands-on STEM learning and robotics. Once a child progresses through the FIRST LEGO League divisions (Discover, Explore and Challenge), they are encouraged to “move up” to FIRST ® Tech Challenge (grades 7-12/ages 12-18) and/or FIRST® Robotics Competition (grades 9-12/ages 14-18). All FIRST ® programs are built on a foundation of Core Values, celebrating discovery, impact, inclusion, innovation, teamwork and fun.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

• Judging: Teams will share what they have learned and get valuable feedback on their Robot Design, Core Values, and Innovation Project in a half-hour judging session. Judges will assess teams’ work on rubrics and provide some immediate verbal feedback to encourage and inspire them.
• Robot Game: In addition to judging, each team will play three separate 2.5-minute matches of the Robot Game. They will try to have their robot score as many points as possible by solving the missions of the Robot Game. Only their highest score counts. The Robot Game allows teams to demonstrate how well their design and code worked. In between matches, you may see them working together to iterate and improve their robot for their next round. Referees at the Robot Game table will also be watching how the teams embody Gracious Professionalism® – the spirit of friendly competition unique to all FIRST programs. When all the matches and judging sessions are complete, the top-performing teams will take home awards, but all teams will share in the celebration of a season well done.