FLL

About FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL)

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an international program, created by FIRST® and LEGO®, designed to get children interested in and excited about science, technology and engineering. Every year FIRST releases a new challenge that engages the teams in hands-on robotics design and scientific research. The theme for the challenge is different each year, allowing teams to learn about a variety of subjects.

Participants, ages 9-14, form teams of 2-10 members. Teams can form from any group: school, scouts, religious organizations, home school groups or even groups of friends. After the challenge has been released, teams have about three months to design, program and build their robot, and prepare an in-depth research presentation related to the challenge theme. The LEGO Mindstorms robotics kit is used to build a robot capable of completing tasks autonomously on the playing field. Team members can use any LEGO parts to build the robot – including parts they already own.

Each team’s hard work is celebrated during one day, high-energy, sports-like tournaments. During the tournaments, teams have three rounds on the Robot Game competition tables to get the best score possible. When not competing with their robots, teams give their research presentations, are interviewed about the technical design of their robots, and how they work as teams. Teams that attend Regional Qualifiers may advance to the Championship event at Iowa State University in January. The winners of the Champion’s Award, our most prestigious award, may be eligible to participate in a variety of post-season tournament opportunities both domestic and abroad.

For more information about FLL and this year’s challenge, please visit the official FLL website.

The LEGO Foundation and LEGO Education will provide $150,000 towards the costs of robotic parts and materials for eligible teams, while FIRST will contribute $100,000 towards registration and additional costs for these newly formed teams. These grants were designed to encourage students to progress from one level in FIRST to the next. The grants are only available to U.S. teams on a first come, first served basis and are available immediately.

For more information about available grants, please visit the Team Grants FAQ.

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For more information, e-mail fll@iastate.edu.

FLL Health and Safety

Iowa State University Engineering Community Outreach encourages teams to take a variety of actions to preserve the health of students, coaches, mentors and volunteers this season. These efforts should be done in collaboration and accordance with local, regional and public health partners. We understand that in-person events will not be possible this season, but hope that teams will practice safety protocols when meeting as a team and at events.

We encourage all teams to consider wearing protective face coverings in classrooms, offices and anywhere physical distancing is not possible. We also encourage teams employ additional cleaning of robotic parts and other team materials and elements to ensure team safety and health.

Our best chance for a successful season includes healthy behaviors that teams can model to help prevent the spread of COVID-19:

  • Wearing face coverings as able that cover mouth and nose
  • Maintaining physical distance
  • Washing hands frequently
  • Staying home when not feeling well

We wish all teams a healthy, successful season. Thank you for doing your part to care for the FIRST® community.

Also check out this awesome page on how to keep your LEGO clean!

And here is some information on Judging Sessions for this year!