Saturday, March 19, 2011

What is FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL®)?



What is FLL®?  Since this is the first year that it is officially in Utah, many people are asking what this LEGO program actually is. FLL® is an incredible program started by a well-known inventor, Dean Kamen.  There are several parts of the competition:



1) Robot Design: the team builds a robot (or robots) to accomplish specific "missions" which change from year to year.


2) Robot game:  the robots are programmed to compete in a public sports type setting for points based on how many missions are completed in a 2 1/2 minute time frame.  This is not easy, but it is fun!


3) Innovative Project: the team works on a real world problem and comes up with their own innovative idea related to the challenge theme of the year.  Many successful teams visit and work with and/or share their idea with professionals in the field to get valuable input on their project.


4) Teamwork: teams are judged on their ability to work together while solving problems in front of a panel of judges.


5) Presentation: it is difficult to fit a lot of information into a small amount of time.  To top it off, try and do this in a creative presentation.  The team gets 5 minutes to share all of the information related to their innovation to a panel of judges.  The judges get 5 minutes to ask the team questions related to the project.

The important part:  the kids do the work.

To find out more about FIRST® LEGO® League go to their media page at:


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