FIRST LEGO League Challenge consists of 4 parts:

1. Core Values
2. Innovation Project
3. Robot Design, and
4. Robot Game.

Core Values:

The team is evaluated on its Core Values during the judging session and the robot game matches. Core Values are the cornerstone of FIRST LEGO League and, in my opinion, what make FIRST LEGO League special. I will discuss Core Values in more detail in a later post, but an important mantra that undergirds the Core Values is “Kids Do the Work.”

Innovation Project:

The team will be judged on its Innovation Project through a five-minute presentation it will give during the judging session. The judges will also ask questions about the team’s project during the judging session.

Robot Design:

The team will be judged on its Robot Design during the judging session. The judges will ask questions about the team’s robot design and programming. While not required, I suggest that the team prepare a five-minute presentation that highlights their robot’s design and programming.

Robot Game:

The team will compete in three 2.5-minute matches. The team’s top score counts.

VERY IMPORTANT:

Each of the foregoing is weighted equally for advancing to the next tournament. A team must do well in EACH CATEGORY to advance to the next tournament. It is not unheard of for the team with the top score in the Robot Game to not advance to the next tournament because it did not do well in one or more of the three remaining categories. FLL Challenge is about so much more than just the Robot Game.

Registration:

In North America, you will need to register your team with FIRST Inspires (the international organization) and your local organization (e.g. FirstWA, Southwest PA, FIRST in Texas, etc.). You will be contacted by your local organization with information about how to register locally. The registration with FIRST Inspires allows you to purchase the Robot Game Challenge set. Registration with your local organization allows your team to compete in tournaments.

Challenge Release:

Each year at the beginning of August, FIRST releases the “Challenge” for the season. The Challenge is topic specific, and the Innovation Project and Robot Game will center on the topic. It’s important to thoroughly review the Challenge materials, which can be found on the FIRST Inspires website.

Team Meeting Guide, Engineering Notebook, and Robot Game Rulebook:

FIRST Inspires provides each team with a Team Meeting Guide, Engineering Notebook, and Robot Game Rulebook. The first two are simply meant as guides to assist teams, you do not need to do anything with them. However, read, read again, and re-read the Robot Game Rulebook. Make sure your team knows it inside and out. And make sure to read the “Updates” listed on the First Inspires website.

Note: Innovation is highly valued in FIRST LEGO League so if the rules don’t prohibit something, you can do it (but your team may want to email your region’s Head Referee to confirm compliance with the rules if the team’s strategy is really “outside the box”).

Robot Table:

You will receive a field kit that includes the challenge mat and mission models (building required). This is for your team to use before the tournaments, and it is important to set it up exactly as the instructions (and updates) require. If it’s not set up correctly, your robot will not do well at the tournament when it’s run on a correctly set-up field. I suggest comparing your mission models and field set-up with the pictures in the Robot Game Rulebook and another team’s table if possible. While it’s not necessary to have your field kit on a table, I highly recommend it as most teams use the table walls as part of the robot’s navigation. In addition, there is always at least one “shared” mission that will require the wall to be properly assembled. The table building instructions are at the link above or you can post on any local Coaches’ Facebook page to see if a team that has aged out of the program is willing to pass its table on to your team.

Rubrics:

The judging rubrics are also linked above. These are the same rubrics that the judges will fill out after your team’s judging session. Make sure your team is very familiar with each rubric.

Team Meetings:

The FLL Challenge season is heavily front-loaded as there is generally only about thirteen weeks between the Challenge Release and the first (qualifying) tournament and there is a lot that needs to be done in those thirteen weeks to adequately prepare for the qualifying tournament. The good news is that if your team moves on to the semi-final and/or championship tournaments, most of the work will have already been done in preparation for the qualifying tournament.

Meeting Schedule:

There is no “correct” schedule for team meetings, and it will probably take some trial and error to figure out what works best for your team. My teams met once a week for three hours with weekly individual homework assignments. As we got closer to the tournaments, we’d add another weekly meeting if needed. We’d also have several all-day or all-weekend robot sessions as the tournaments approached. It’s important to let the kids drive how much you meet.

Meeting Structure: In the beginning when my teams were young, I set the agenda for the meetings. This was especially important when the kids had not yet attended a tournament because they did not appreciate all that needed to be done to prepare. However, your goal is to put yourself out of a job, so it’s important that as the kids get older and are familiar with what is expected of an FIRST LEGO League team, you place more and more of the responsibility for organizing team meets on their shoulders.

Sample Meeting Agenda:

1. Team game—We started each meeting with a five-to-ten-minute game. This included chair races, Pictionary, 20 Guesses, etc.
2. Team goals—We set goals at the beginning of each season, and we reviewed our goals during each meeting to keep track of our progress.
3. Review Homework—Each team member presents their homework from the prior week to the team.
4. Checklist—Review what needs to be done at the meeting and set agenda/assign tasks.
5. Work—Work on the Innovation Project, Core Values, and Robot Game, either as a team or in pairs.
6. Recap—Review what was completed and what still needs to be done. Assign homework.
7. Snacks & Breaks—Have plenty of snacks and breaks as needed.

Kids Do the Work:

Remember, the point of FIRST LEGO League is not to win awards, it’s to teach kids important life skills through STEM. If done right, your kids will learn the importance of goal setting, how to work as a team, resilience, persistence, how to conduct research, how to answer questions from strangers, how to put together and give engaging and informative presentations, how to deal with disappointment, how to help their community, how to tackle a problem, how to think outside the box, and so much more. Please do not rob your kids of the opportunity to make mistakes by doing the work for them. Not only will the kids know that they don’t really deserve any accolades they receive, but it deprives them of the opportunity to learn and grow. The more you let your team struggle and work their own way to solutions, the stronger they will be as a team in the future. This doesn’t mean that you let your team endlessly flounder, after all you do want them to learn, but it does mean that you teach rather than do, point to resources, ask questions, encourage risk-taking, and have faith in the kids’ curiosity. I quickly learned that the best thing I can do as a coach is to get out of the kids’ way. There were so many times when I would shake my head (to myself or call another coach) because I thought the kids were making a mistake. Sometimes they were and they learned from it. But other times they weren’t and something brilliant came from it, something that never would have happened if I had stepped in. Resources:

Resources:

FLL Challenge: Share and Learn FB page
FIRST Inspires Resource Library
Cryptic Cookies Bits ‘n Bots Website
Judging session flowchart <a href=”https://firstinspiresst01.blob.core.windows.net/first-energize/fll-challenge/fll-challenge-superpowered-rubrics.pdf’>Rubrics</a>

Thank you for coaching! Heather

This article is by the coach of an award-winning team called Cryptic Cookies Bits & Bots.