|
The FIRST Lego League (also known by its acronym FLL) is a competition
for elementary and middle school students, arranged by the FIRST
organization. Each year the contest focuses on a different topic
related to the sciences. Each challenge within the competition
then revolves around that theme. The students then work out solutions
to the various problems that they're given and meet for regional
tournaments to share their knowledge and show off their ideas.
There are four main facets to the competition. Firstly, students
are interviewed by a panel of judges probing them for their teamwork.
Secondly, the students must demonstrate that the robot that they
built is designed appropriately for the task given. Thirdly, the
students must do an independent project that relates to the topic
and give a short presentation to a panel of judges on the investigative
problem solving they completed. Finally, the students must use
the robots they designed to complete a set of tasks on a playing
field.
FIRST Lego League teams use Lego Mind storms kits to build small
autonomous robots that traverse these Lego playing fields and
complete the given tasks. The organization is a partnership between
FIRST and The Lego Group.
Students have eight weeks to work on their robot and their independent
project. They go on to compete in FLL events, similar to the FIRST
Robotics Competition regional's.
In the past, the challenges have been based on disabilities (No
Limits 2004) sending probes to Mars (Mission Mars 2003) and exploring
our cities and their problems (City Sights 2002). The program
was first created in 1999 with the Volcanic Panic challenge. This
year (2005) the focus is on the oceans with Ocean Odyssey.
In August of 2006 a new Mind storm kit will be put out by Lego.
FIRST is planning on integrating the new kit for the 2006 competition.
The 2006 FLL topic will be on Nanotechnology. |
FIRST Lego League, or FLL was founded in 1998,
in a partnership between FIRST and the Lego Corporation. As an
offshoot of the FIRST Robotics Competition, FLL was designed for
a younger audience using the Lego Mind storms kits. Students involved
in FLL build small LEGO robots, that traverse a 4' by 8' playing
field to accomplish tasks related around a core theme. Some of
these 'themes' include:
Previous Challenges
* 1999 - "First Contact"
* 2000 - "Volcanic Panic"
* 2001 - "Arctic Impact"
* 2002 - "City Sights"
* 2003 - "Mission Mars"
* 2004 - "No Limits"
* 2005 - "Ocean Odyssey"
Robot Challenge
Each year in September, the official FLL game
is released. Special playing field components, all made of LEGO's,
are used to simulate real world things, like polar bears for the
Arctic Impact Challenge, or astronaut housing modules for the
Mission Mars Challenge. From this date until their first competition,
which is roughly 8 weeks, teams have to design, build, and program
fully-autonomous robots made entirely of LEGO parts.
Research Assignment
In addition to the robot challenge, FLL teams
also are required to do a 'Research Assignment', about modern
problems in society related to the core theme of that year's FLL
Challenge. The Research Assignment is considered to have a higher
honor in winning its award, as compared to the regular winner
of the robot challenge.
Events
After the 8-week build season in over, FLL teams
compete at one of over 200 regional FLL Events. Here, teams usually
have two or more rounds in which they compete with their LEGO
robot on the official playing field. Teams also present their
Research Assignments to a special panel of judges at the competitions.
|
|
1998
For the pilot year, there were 1,600 students participating in
2 pilot competitions.
1999
1999 was the initial year of FIRST Lego League in the USA. There
were 9,500 students participating in 9 tournaments.
2000
In 2000, Norway joined the FLL International for the Volcanic
Panic Challenge. There were 15,000 students in the United States
participating in 50 competitions.
2001
In 2001, the United Kingdom and Germany were added to the countries
with FLL teams. There were 17,000 students involved in FLL in
North America, participating in 50 U.S. competitions for the Arctic
Impact Challenge
2002
In 2002, France and Singapore join FLL International for the City
Sights Challenge. There are 3,001 teams, 27,009 students, and
119 tournaments. Broken down by country, there were:
* 2,573 Teams in North America
* 253 Teams in Scandinavia
* 35 Teams in Germany
* 20 Teams in France
* 60 Teams in the UK
* 60 Teams in Singapore
2003
In 2003, China, Brazil, and South Korea join FLL International.
There are now over 5,000 FLL teams, 42,000 students, and 200 tournaments
for the Mission Mars Challenge
2004
In 2004, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, and and Turkey joined the
growing list of countries supporting FLL teams. It was projected
that there were over 6,000 teams and 50,000 students participating
in 210 tournaments all over the world in the 2004: No Limits Challenge.
2005
In 2005, over 60,000 kids from 31 countries participated in FLL.
|
First Lego League Official
Web Site
|
