The Programme
FIRST® LEGO® League shows young people what it means to be an engineer and work with STEM skills and subjects, but focuses on practical, hands-on learning, so they are doing, not watching. FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is designed for 9-16 year-olds and develops key skills that are crucial for their future careers. Young people work together to explore a given topic and to design, build and program an autonomous LEGO® robot to solve a series of missions.
Robot Game - Teams build a robot using a LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime kit that they program to autonomously complete a series of missions on a specialised field to score as many points as possible.
Innovation Project - Teams research the annual theme as detailed in the Challenge documentation pack. After exploring different ideas, they identify one problem related to the theme, design a solution to solve it, and develop a presentation to communicate that solution.
Robot Design - Teams explain the process of designing, building and programming the LEGO® robot they are using in the Robot Game.
Core Values - Teams work together constantly to solve problems and create solutions.
The six Core Values that run through each programme are Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork and Fun. These Core Values are integral to the programme, and whilst they are working towards an end goal and have many objectives, developing these skills is the most important part of the programme for participants. The programme gives all children in a team equal opportunity and each team member must contribute in order for the team to be successful.
What you can do
Teachers and coaches are fully supported with comprehensive resources available to download on the Learnit and IET websites, training videos, digital assets and support.
You can sign up here, and if you're in a location with funding, complete the 30 Day Challenge to get grant funding to cover all the costs associated with delivering the programme in your school or community group. The team at Learnit (Ireland) or the IET (UK) will support you through the process.
The Programme
FIRST® LEGO® League shows young people what it means to be an engineer and work with STEM skills and subjects, but focuses on practical, hands-on learning, so they are doing, not watching. FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is designed for 9-16 year-olds and develops key skills that are crucial for their future careers. Young people work together to explore a given topic and to design, build and program an autonomous LEGO® robot to solve a series of missions.
Robot Game - Teams build a robot using a LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime kit that they program to autonomously complete a series of missions on a specialised field to score as many points as possible.
Innovation Project - Teams research the annual theme as detailed in the Challenge documentation pack. After exploring different ideas, they identify one problem related to the theme, design a solution to solve it, and develop a presentation to communicate that solution.
Robot Design - Teams explain the process of designing, building and programming the LEGO® robot they are using in the Robot Game.
Core Values - Teams work together constantly to solve problems and create solutions.
The six Core Values that run through each programme are Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork and Fun. These Core Values are integral to the programme, and whilst they are working towards an end goal and have many objectives, developing these skills is the most important part of the programme for participants. The programme gives all children in a team equal opportunity and each team member must contribute in order for the team to be successful.
What you can do
Teachers and coaches are fully supported with comprehensive resources available to download on the Learnit and IET websites, training videos, digital assets and support.
You can sign up here, and if you're in a location with funding, complete the 30 Day Challenge to get grant funding to cover all the costs associated with delivering the programme in your school or community group. The team at Learnit (Ireland) or the IET (UK) will support you through the process.
We have received our registration pack from Lego League and have established our team which is made up of 10 TY students. We have had our first session and have 11 more scheduled between now and the tournament on Friday February 23rd in DCU, Dublin.
Action Plan Change X
How the seed funding will be spent:
- Ballymakenny College is a relatively new school on the outskirts of Dublin which I have been teaching in for 5 years now.
- As a student I was involved in the School Lego Leagues and it is something I am very excited to get set up in Ballymakenny College.
- The funding will be spent on registering the school for the regional competition, which is scheduled to be held in February in DCU Dublin, as well as buying all the necessary equipment from Lego that the team needs to participate, i.e. The EV Education kit, accessories, maps etc.
Covid 19 Safety Plan
- A lot of time and planning has gone into safeguarding our school against Covid 19.
- Every classroom has been spaced out to ensure social distancing is in effect in every room.
- Mask wearing in school is mandatory.
- We have organized a designated area in our Technology department in school where students can work on their innovation project and robotics programming in a safe and distant manner.
- Hand sanitizers are available at the entrance to the room.
- The floor is marked to ensure students remain socially distant.
How will our school benefit from this project?
- We have formed a team of 8 students who are ready to participate in the First Lego league challenge. The students are from a variety of different year groups ranging from ages 13-16, both male and female.
- This project is going to promote a positive spirit amongst the team as they all work together towards a shared goal of competing in the regional competition.
- As the funding will be used to buy the equipment needed to participate, it will be the foundation of the First Lego League being an annual event that the school gets involved in. Students from all year groups who take classes in the Technology Department will see our team in action, ask questions and hopefully get involved in years to come.
- We hope this project provides the students with lifelong memoires and allows them to forge relationships with students who they may not have encountered throughout their time in school without this project. The school will gain a new initiative for students to become involved in and promote STEM from a new perspective in our school.