First Lego League Challenge Resources
If you are a coach, mentor, or volunteer and have questions or want to be involved in FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge, look through the links on this page. If you have further questions, are needing assistance in running/starting a team, or other specific problems, please contact msporing@jedc.org and acooper@jedc.org.
Below is a list of some resources that may be of value to FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge teams and coaches. Please take note that most of them are NOT official FIRST®-approved resources. Many are links to training or videos created by FIRST® Tech Challenge or FIRST® LEGO® Robotics Competition teams in their effort to provide outreach and support to the FIRST® LEGO® League program. Do not rely entirely on any source other than the documents and resources specifically published by FIRST® LEGO® League for authoritative game or judging advice or information. In addition to the resources listed below, be sure to check out our training page.
OFFICIAL FIRST® AND LEGO® RESOURCES AND PUBLICATIONS
Official FIRST® LEGO® Season Resources
Click Here – This is where coaches will find many different items to support their team throughout their season approaching events and tournaments. Season Materials including the Team Meeting Guide, Engineering Notebook, and Robot Game Rulebook can all be found here. Also found on this site are resources for Class Pack, Mission Model building instructions, season updates (important to stay current on!), various videos, and all role specific information found in the Volunteer Resources page.
FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge Volunteer Resources
Click Here – This offical FIRST® Resource is a one stop shop for role specific information involved in tournaments and other FIRST® Events. This page contains useful information for Coaches looking to prepare their team for events, as well as volunteers who are looking to perform some of these roles at a tournament or other events. Included in this resource page is information on the following roles:
- Judging – Judge and Judge Advisor
- Referee – Referee and Head Referee
- Tournament Hosts
- Volunteer Coodinators
- General Volunteer Resources
How To Access Thinkscape
Click Here – This link will provide instructions to access an interactive Engineering Notebook, a Team Meeting Guide, Robot Game Rules, and many teaching resources available through Thinkscape. Coaches can access Thinkscape through your team dashboard on the FIRST® website.
FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge Blog
Click Here – for the specific FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge Blog, to catch up on Team Blasts and more, click this link. Registered Coaches should be recieving the Team Blasts via email as well.
Click Here – For information on the rest of FIRST®, including the FIRST® Tech Challenge and FIRST® Robotics Competiton specific blogs, click this link.
FIRST® Social Media
FIRST® Facebook Page – This link takes you to the FIRST® Facebook page, where they post updates on all things FIRST® (not just FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge).
FIRST® LEGO® League Facebook Page – This webpage is the specific facebook for FIRST LEGO League Challenge.
Classroom Resources
FIRST® @ Home – This webpage is the offical FIRST® site for at home learning and more educational resources. This webpage includes information like a Robotics Engineering Exploration Curriculum, STEM activity Series, Camp Guides, and more.
LEGO® Education Classroom Curriculum – This webpage is the offical LEGO® community page for LEGO® Education, including activites for LEGO® Education SPIKE Prime (current generation of FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge robots), and many more classroom activities!
PROGRAMMING AND ROBOTICS RESOURCES:
The links in this section are a combination of offical and unoffical resources from FIRST® and LEGO®
Studio 2.0
Click Here – This link is from Bricklink and enables building a robot in a virtual environment.
FIRST® LEGO® League Tutorials
Click Here – This link directs to an FIRST® LEGO® League training page.
SPIKE Prime (Latest Model in FLL Challenge)
SPIKE Prime Software Download
Click Here – Click this link to be taken to download the LEGO® SPIKE Prime software, which will allow teams to code and control their robots.
Motor and Sensor Guide
Click Here – This document, created by JEDC, is a summary of the different block code options in the SPIKE Prime software and how they relate the to sensors and motors that are included with the SPIKE Prime kit.
Prime Lessons
Click Here – This resource is a website which provides individual SPIKE Prime and overall FIRST® LEGO® League Resources.
Block Guide
Click Here – This document, also by Prime Lessons, is a more expanded version of the JEDC block guide summary, proividing a more in depth look at each of the block code options and how they affect the physical system. The link provided directs to SPIKE Prime 2, if teams have a SPIKE Prime 3, there is a separate document linked here.
EV3 Mindstorms (Previous Model for FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge)
EV3 Software Download
Click Here – link directs to the new Scratch-based EV3 programming platform.
EV3 Mindstorm Lab Download
Click Here – Formerly called EV3-G, this is now listed as a retired product. This is what most teams have been continuing to use and is still legal to use in FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge.
EV3 Lessons
Click Here – From the same website as PRIME Lessons, EV3 Lessons provides similar resources for the EV3 platform.
INNOVATION PROJECT RESOURCES
FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge Tutorials
Click Here – This website is a landing page for coaches and teams preparing for their Innovation Project. The website lists specific resources for learning about the CORE VALUES, as well as team building activities.
FIRST® LEGO® League Tutorials - Project Section
Click Here – This link directs to a specific set of tutotials for coaches and teams alike to be able to prepare for the Innovation Project. These trainings include items like “How to Research”, “Innovation Project Judging”, “What Makes a Project Innovative?” and many more.
Coaching a Team in FIRST® LEGO® League Innovation Projects
Click Here – This resource, primarily for coaches and mentors, is a YouTube video which outlines ways in which to support teams in their development if the Innovation Project.
Coach and Team Resources
Resources and Trainings for Coaches:
Core Values Training
Click Here – This resource is for coaches to be able to (virtually) learn more about the FIRST® Core Values.
Community Best Practices
Click Here – New short video series from FIRST® LEGO® League.
Mentoring a FIRST® Team
Click Here – Online training for coaches about the aspect of mentoring a FIRST® Team.
General Team Resources:
FIRST® LEGO® League Tutorials
Click Here – Excellent resources on all aspects of FIRST® LEGO® League including lessons, a scoring app, planning worksheets, and some great coach resources (see the “Worksheets” in their Resources tab).
FIRST® IN ALASKA Facebook
Click Here – Directs to the FIRST® in Alaska Facebook Page.
FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge Facebook
Quick Route
Quick Route – In case you have to condense your season into fewer sessions
AOF Robotics
AOF Robotics – to help teams accept donations and sponsorships
YouTube Channels:
Note on YouTube videos that are posted by FIRST® LEGO® League teams: It can be very helpful to see what other teams have done in past years or perhaps even in the current season. Your team can look at navigation strategies, multi-tasking, how other teams approach missions etc. While it can be fun and inspiring for teams to watch these videos, it can also be very discouraging if they don’t remember a few key points:
- Teams outside North America can have kids who are up to 16 years old on FIRST® LEGO® League teams.
- These are typically the best teams in the world posting videos, and these are NOT typical for our local tournaments.
- Almost every video you will find was recorded during a practice run, when the robot was performing perfectly, not during an actual tournament.
Please be sure that your teams learn from and enjoy the other teams’ videos, but don’t become discouraged because they think they should be able to perform like that.