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.
Website: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/