FIRST LEGO League introduces science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to elementary and middle school children through fun, exciting hands-on learning. Participants gain real-world problem-solving experiences through a guided, global robotics program, helping today’s students and teachers build a better future together.
Saint Peter Area Robotics offers two levels of FLL:
FLL Explore
In Explore, teams of students in grades K-4 focus on the fundamentals of engineering as they explore real-world problems, learn to design, and code and create unique solutions made with LEGO bricks and powered by LEGO® Education WeDo 2.0.
- Build models using LEGO® Education WeDo 2.0 and LEGO bricks
- Create Show Me posters to present what they learned
- Begin working with simple motors, gears, robotics, and programming
- Focus on building interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through a real-world challenge – to be solved by research, critical thinking, and imagination
Ages: FLL Explore is designed for students in grades K-4
Cost: The FLL Explore participation fee is $35
Saint Peter Area Robotics is a non-profit community group that is run by volunteers. We need help from the families of our students, so a volunteer commitment deposit is mandatory and is included with your registration fee. You will be REFUNDED THE AMOUNT once you’ve completed your volunteer hours. If registering for FLL Explore, a $50 volunteer deposit is charged. This equates to 2 hours of volunteering.
Season: Early September – October
Registration: FLL Explore participants are strongly encouraged to complete their registration by September 1st
Practices: Teams normally meet once a week for 1-2 hours at a time
Team size: Teams are generally 6-10 students
Parent involvement: Teams are led by coaches who typically are a parent of one of the team members. All parents are encouraged to attend practice at any time even if they are not the coach to provide extra guidance and to have fun with the team.
Challenge and competition: Based around a themed challenge created by FIRST that is released in August and changed each year. Although there is not a competition to attend for FLL Explore, teams may display their projects and talk about their season to the public at the local mock FLL tournament in November in St. Peter that is hosted by Saint Peter Area Robotics.
There are many resources for coaches that can be found on the FIRST website.
FLL Challenge
Friendly competition is at the heart of Challenge, as teams of students in grades 4-8 engage in research, problem-solving, coding, and engineering – building and programming a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of a robot game.
Students in FLL Challenge get to:
- Design, build, test and program robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology
- Apply real-world math and science concepts
- Research challenges facing today’s scientists
- Learn critical thinking, team-building and presentation skills
- Participate in tournaments and celebrations
Ages: FLL Challenge is designed for students in grades 4-8.
Cost: The FLL Challenge participation fee is $100, with a discount of $25 for participants who register before September 1.
Saint Peter Area Robotics is a non-profit community group that is run by volunteers. We need help from the families of our students, so a volunteer commitment deposit is mandatory and is included with your registration fee. You will be REFUNDED THE AMOUNT once you’ve completed your volunteer hours. If registering for FLL Challenge, a $100 volunteer deposit is charged. This equates to 4 hours of volunteering.
Season: Late August – December or January
Registration: FLL Challenge participants are strongly encouraged to complete their registration by September 1st since the challenge for the season is typically announced in late August
Practices: Teams normally meet 2 times a week for about 2 hours at a time
Team size: Teams are purposefully small – typically not more than 5-6 students per team
Parent involvement: Teams are led by coaches who typically are a parent of one of the team members. All parents are encouraged to attend practice at any time even if they are not the coach to provide extra guidance and to have fun with the team
Challenge and competition: Based around a themed challenge created by FIRST that is released in early August and changed each year. Teams will compete at one regional tournament in December or January (sometimes November, depending on tournament schedule/availability). There is a local mock FLL Challenge tournament in November in St. Peter that is hosted by Saint Peter Area Robotics.
There are many resources for coaches that can be found on the FIRST website.