September 27, 2017

Starting a FIRST LEGO League Team (MI FLL Team Blast 2017.09)

FIRST Lego League is a team based activity with two theme-based activities:  an autonomously operated LEGO robot game, and a community research project. The cornerstones of the experience are the FLL Core Values, which emphasize contributions of others, friendly competition, learning, and community involvement.  Think of the robot game and the project as what we do, and the Core Values as how we do it.

In Michigan we run FIRST Lego League in the upper elementary grades, starting in 4th grade, through the end of elementary. The programs are aligned to the local (public) school structure, to allow the students to grow through the entire progression of FIRST programs, to develop and enhance their skills beginning in elementary school and all the way through high school.


MICHIGAN’S PROGRESSION:
Kindergarten-Grade 3 students:    FIRST LEGO League Jr. only
Late Elementary students:            FIRST LEGO League only (starting in grade 4)
Middle School students:               FIRST Tech Challenge only
High School students:                  FIRST Robotics Competition only

More information on the Michigan FIRST Progression of Programs may be found here.

Team registration for the 2017 season is now open.  You may register your team here.  The 2017 season Challenge is called HYDRO DYNAMICS, which explores human water cycle.  In the HYDRO DYNAMICS Challenge, the human water cycle describes the ways people find, transport, use, and dispose of water in
order to meet a specific need or desire.  Competition events will take place in November and December.  

Basic program and material cost information may be found here.  Each team needs Team Registration, a FIRST LEGO League Challenge Set (FSK), and a FIRST LEGO League EV3 Robot Set.  We do expect to be able to offer grants again this season. All grants are reimbursement grants, meaning that the team must be fully registered and must have paid for their program materials in order to be eligible for a grant.  Alignment is key.  All teams that submit a grant application are expected to compete in an official FIRST in Michigan event, as part of the grant requirements.  Teams must be in the proper program to compete in Michigan. In addition, significant grants from the state, and FIRST in Michigan sponsors are available only to properly aligned teams that are from public or private schools, or 501c3 organizations (Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, 4-H etc) . The grants provide kits, registration fees, and even coach stipends. As a rule of thumb, middle school grades are as determined by your school district or the district in your area. If 6th grade is a middle school grade in your school/district, then 6th grade students would participate in FTC. More information may be found in Michigan FIRST Progression of Programs link above.

Here is some additional information to get you started:
·  Starting a team information may be found here.
·  If you are looking for a step by step guide, check out the coaches manual here.
·  Season specific documents was posted when the Global Challenge was released on August, 29, 2017.  
·  Mission model build instructions and the field setup guide are already available, and may be found here.
·  The EV3 software is downloadable through the LEGO Education site here, and there are tutorials.
·  Ask an Expert webinar information is posted here.  These are recorded, if you can’t watch them live.
·  There is also a FIRST LEGO League YouTube channel here.
·  There are also FIRST LEGO League modules available on Schoology.  More information may be found here.

Did you know:  Information is sent out to registered Michigan FIRST LEGO League teams through email blasts throughout the season.  All email blasts are posted online.  For a complete list of this season’s email blasts, please check out the Michigan FIRST LEGO League blog.

Pamela Williamson
Michigan FIRST LEGO League Partner
michiganfll@gmail.com