FIRST LEGO League Explore (FLLE) (formerly known as FIRST LEGO League Jr.) is a non-competitive

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist human ...

program designed for children ages six to ten. It is one of the programs established by

FIRST First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

. FIRST LEGO League Explore follows the same theme given to the FIRST LEGO League Challenge. While FIRST LEGO League Challenge teams conduct research projects and design autonomous robots specifically to carry out missions relating to the topic, FIRST LEGO League Explore teams conduct much smaller projects and makes models out of

LEGO Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...

elements to illustrate one part of the theme. They may also use LEGO WeDo, a programmable robotics kit, as part of their models. Currently, the program is available in 33 countries.

History

FIRST LEGO League Explore started out as a pilot program in 2004 to encourage young children to have interest in science and engineering. In the first pilot year, the teams were provided with some specific LEGO parts by FIRST, but that idea was dropped in later years. Teams now use any LEGO elements that they have to build the models. The pilot years were done in three phases from 2004 to 2006. The program was officially launched in 2007 during the Power Puzzle season. During the first five years, the program was not referred as a robotic program. The only requirements to build models out of LEGO elements were to have some moving parts and include at least one

simple machine A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. In general, they can be defined as the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage (also called leverage) to multiply force. Usually the term refer ...

based on a given topic of that year. FIRST has provided an option to purchase a FIRST LEGO League Jr. Base Kit that contains many LEGO elements including

gear A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic p ...

motor An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

, and other TECHNIC elements. In 2009, with the new robotics kit by LEGO Group, the program included LEGO WeDo as an optional kitJunior FIRST LEGO League Event Guide
, FIRST - accessed December 23, 2009 which allows children to connect a motor and/or a

sensor A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...

to other LEGO bricks, gears and other TECHNIC elements. It also has

drag-and-drop In computer graphical user interfaces, drag and drop is a pointing device gesture in which the user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In general, it can be used to ...

programming interface for children to write robotics programs. The number of participants has been increasing each year.Impact
, FIRST - accessed December 23, 2009 However, the program was limited to the United States and Canada until 2009.

Program details

FIRST LEGO League Explore is designed to be a non-competitive and community-based program. The teams are formed within local community and participate in local events. FIRST provides guidelines to help coaches to run their teams and local organizers to run FIRST LEGO League Explore events. However, FIRST does not organize any FIRST LEGO League Jr. event, unlike other FIRST programs. The program is designed to be flexible; there are no specific dates for the program. Each team may decide when to start the activities and for how long as long as the registration is done within the season calendar which is from August to June each year. A team consists of 2-6 team members. There is an age limit that team members must not be older than 9 as of January 1 of the year the Challenge is released. Although there is no lower bound on age, FIRST suggests that the program is intended for children 6 or older. After registering a team, the coach guides students to do research by following the Challenge guideline. The team may have a

field trip A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. When done for students, as it happens in several school systems, it is also known as school trip in the UK, Australia, New Zealand an ...

or visit experts to help children to learn more about the topic. Children will then work on their "Show Me"

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. ...

and LEGO models to demonstrate their findings according to the instructions in the Challenge. The team may choose to use any LEGO parts that they have at home to construct their models. Optionally, the team may purchase FIRST LEGO League Explore Base Kit or LEGO WeDo Kit to use.Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL) Coaches’ Guide
- accessed December 23, 2009Products and Pricing
, FIRST - accessed December 31, 2009

Challenges

The FIRST LEGO League Explore challenges align with the research project portion of the FIRST LEGO League Challenge.Junior FIRST LEGO League - Challenge History
, FIRST - accessed December 23, 2009

Events

Concept

The program encourages teams to go out and tell their story to others after they have completed the poster and the models. They may participate in one of the well-established FIRST LEGO League Explore events, which are typically part of FIRST LEGO League Challenge tournaments run by independent FIRST LEGO League Challenge partners. Most of these events are called FIRST LEGO League Explore Expos.What Events And Teams Are In My Area?
, FIRST - accessed December 23, 2009 Alternately, they may host their own event in the neighborhood or at school to showcase their accomplishment. At the FIRST LEGO League Explore event, there will be "Reviewers" (the judges) to ask children some questions about what they have learned. They may be asked details about the project and the models that they built. The FIRST LEGO League Explore concept is that everyone is a winner, therefore, the event organizers are recommended to give an award to each team that participates in the event.

Awards

The organizers can create any list of awards. Below is the list of awards suggested by FIRST: :* Amazing Movement Award :* Gracious Professionalism Award :* Against All Odds Award :* Effort and Learning Award :* Complexity and Decoration Award :* Most Explosive Award :* Robust Design Award :* Construction Innovation Award :* Team Spirit Award :* Teamwork Award :* Inquiring Minds

Notable events

Since the inception of the program, FIRST LEGO League Explore events have been held by local organizers or official FIRST LEGO League Explore partners in the participating countries, but not by FIRST headquarters.Event Guide
, ''FIRST'' - accessed March 24, 2012 FIRST holds an annual event called the FIRST LEGO League Explore World Festival Expo each year as part of the

FIRST Championship The FIRST Championship is a four-day robotics championship held annually in April at which FIRST student robotics teams compete. For several years, the event was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to the Edward Jones Dome i ...

, in Houston, Texas and Detroit, Michigan.

References

External links

* {{Lego For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics events Lego 2004 in robotics Recurring events established in 2004