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| FIRST Lego League (FLL) is a program that combines FIRST's theme of innovation with LEGO® pieces. The program which is aimed at elementary/middle school students ages 9-14 years old sparks interest in science and engineering at an early age. Although it is much simpler than the FRC or FTC competitions, young FIRSTers learn the same skills of programming, designing, teamwork, and a sense of camaraderie. |
The Mission
Every year, a new mission is announced in September. The mission is based on problems that scientists around the world face today. There are two parts to the mission: the Robot and Project. The Robot part is all about designing, building, programming, and competing with the robot. The Project assigns teams a question related to the mission. Teams research and create presentations to show their solutions to Judges at the competiton.
The Kit
Recently, FLL has come out with a new kit that teams can use. It includes an NXT brick (which is noted as the robot), LEGO® parts, sensors (sound, ultrasonic, touch, and light), new software for programming and 3 servo motors (with rotation sensors). The previous kits had a yellow brick as the robot (RCX) and came with the ROBOLAB software for programming along with other items. FLL plans to support schools that have the RCX kits until 2009, and teams were allowed to use them in competiton for the 2007 year. (Teams that used older kits were given bonus points for using the older kits).
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Competitions
Tournaments are mostly in local areas. Our Foxboro Lego League competed in Sacramento at Sam Brannan Middle School for their first year and competed locally at the Vacaville Tournament this year. If teams do well, they are encouraged to compete at the prestigious competiton for FLL at the World Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. This year, it is taking place along with the FRC competition on April 17th-19th 2008. They plan to host teams from all over the world and estimate that 84 teams from 27 countries: Australia, Benelux, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Haiti, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States will participate.
Hidden Inside Legos
The skills students learn through this program are life-changing. Even before having the chance to participate at a high school level robotics competiton, these young FIRSTers would have already learned the basic concepts of engineering and applied science. Through the fun factor of LEGOS, these students graduate from this program with a new sense of knowledge and unique thinking that they will need for the future.
Sources
Information & Images in Slideshow:
United States FLL Website: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll/default.aspx?id=970
International FLL Website: http: //www.firstlegoleague.org/
The very cute JFLL Website: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/jfll/default.aspx?id=818
Mindstorm Kits from LEGO: http://mindstorms.lego.com/
As written: December 2007, Priya Rangan |
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