Jr. FIRST LEGO League

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a non-profit organization with a mission to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. In pursuit of that goal, FIRST has developed a series of programs that introduce kids to research, robotics, and teamwork.

The University of Utah held the first State Championship for FLL (the 9-14 year old robot game) in Utah this past January, and will be holding multiple events next year. There will be space for some teams to participate in a Jr.FLL Expo at the State Championship event in 2012, so this year your team may be able to be a part of that exciting day!

The Jr. FIRST LEGO League is for kids ages 6-8, with up to 6 members on each team. Teams meet for about 1.5 hours a week for 6-8 weeks. The team works together on a themed challenge, last year it was Body Forward (focusing on biotechnology). After choosing a specific topic within the challenge area, the team does research on their chosen topic, and makes a LEGO model and poster to demonstrate what they learned. For example, my team chose a "hospital" as their topic. The research poster had sections with information about the history and use of various tools in the hospital (like x-ray machines, wheelchairs, and ambulances), and the model was of a hospital with a helicopter, MRI machine, x-ray machine, and other hospital stuff. Another team chose to research a stomach pump, made a LEGO model of a simple stomach pump (really!), and their poster talked about the history of the stomach pump and what the team learned about it.

Running a Jr.FLL team is easy and hard at the same time. The coach resources that you get when you register a team lay out general meeting agendas that you can use to build your season. You can probably imagine what it's like trying to direct the energy of 6 kids with LEGO bricks in the room. Here are some things I learned:

1. Don't try to talk to the kids with LEGOs around. We started our meetings with a snack while I told them what we planned to do during that meeting. Sometimes we'd spend this time brainstorming or making decisions.

2. It's easiest for the kids to work in groups of 2 or 3. I'd try to have two things going on at each meeting and split the kids into groups. We'd have two "work periods" in a meeting so that each group could work on their task and then switch. Everyone would get a build session and a poster session, for example, or work on two different parts of the model.

3. Have an assistant coach. Even though the kids are working in small groups, they probably need an adult to help keep them on task.

4. Consider having some mini-building challenges in reserve. Near the end when we were almost done, it was hard to keep some of the kids from being disruptive because there wasn't much to do, and what was left to be done didn't interest them. I tried to engage them in mini-building challenges, with mixed success.

If you decide to register a team ($25) you will have the option to buy a Jr.FLL "base LEGO kit" for $150. It has lots of really cool LEGO gears, beams, studded beams (they look like regular LEGO beams with holes in them), etc. This kit is cool, but it comes with absolutely no instructions so unless you are skilled at creating Technic models, I don't recommend that you buy it. If you'd like to see what's in the kit, e-mail me and you can come see mine. (stephanie at ozenne.com) There's also a WeDo robotics kit that you can buy for $170. According to the website, you may need more LEGOs in addition to what comes in the kit (I've heard bulk LEGOs on ebay go for around $10 a pound - as always, be careful who you buy from!). Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with this kit so I can't tell you whether it would be good for your team or not. I'm interested in getting one so I can try out robotics and programming with the younger kids! You can see both of these options on the FIRST website.

UPDATE - this year the Base Kit comes with instructions! This makes it a much better choice for first-year teams. I have already gotten my WeDo kit for my team this year, and it looks like a fantastic introduction to programming. Either of these kits would be great for a first-year team, though with the WeDo kit you may want to buy a base plate and you'll probably need some additional LEGOs to complete your model. Also, the suggested season of 6-8 weeks is probably short if you're going to spend time on robotics or learning to build mechanisms. From what I've seen of the WeDo kit, we could easily spend 6-8 weeks on robots alone before we start on the challenge. I'd guess that you could also spend a few weeks getting familiar with building mechanisms now that the base kit has instructions in it. A complete description of the products you can purchase for Jr.FLL this year can be found here.

If you'd like to give Jr.FLL a try without spending any money at all (and you have a LEGO collection at home already), past challenges can be found online at the FIRST site. The 2012 challenge will be released in August this year, so you have time this summer to try it out and decide if you'd like to be "official."

For more information, check out these sites:
USFIRST
FLL in Utah