LEGO Education and FIRST have unveiled the theme for this year’s FIRST LEGO League competition. The FIRST LEGO League RePLAY 2020-2021 is set to launch this August, with registration now open for interested contestants.
For those of you unfamiliar with this international competition, the FIRST LEGO League is an annual worldwide gathering of young scientific innovators from elementary to high school levels, thanks to the collaborative effort between LEGO Group’s Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and FIRST Founder Dean Kamen. This collaborative endeavor aims to have the participants compete in basic research to solve a particular worldwide problem and propose a real-world solution using technology, innovation, and of course LEGO bricks.
For this new season, FIRST LEGO League has introduced some changes to cover a broader range of young builders and budding tech enthusiasts. It has now introduced a simplified program structure with three divisions: Challenge (ages 9-14), Explore (ages 6-10), and Discover (ages 4-6). While the branding will change, the program’s impact and experience are expected to remain the same. Through this new setup, it is expected that this year’s season will reach nearly 500,000 children, ages 4 to 16, coming from more than a hundred countries.
Check out the infographic below for a closer look at each division.
This year’s theme entitled GAME CHANGERS is inspired by Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Force for Change that aims to develop a generation of real-world problem solvers and innovators. Here’s a sneak peek at what to expect from this year’s season.
For this FIRST LEGO League challenges, students will be tasked with completing a challenge designed in partnership with a panel of experts using a variety of LEGO Education products, including LEGO Education WeDo 2.0, LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3, and the newest LEGO Education SPIKE Prime and SPIKE Prime Expansion set. These LEGO Education sets will be used to solve several challenges and specific obstacles as you can see from the Challenge Mat below. Additionally, for the first time ever, these LEGO Education sets are now available for purchase at LEGO Shop@Home in case you or your team is planning to join.
Take a look at some of the LEGO Education products that participants can play with to train for this annual tech competition.
Other than the FIRST LEGO League, this year’s RePLAY 2020-2021 season also includes the FIRST Tech Challenge and the FIRST Robotics Competition both of which offer a more advanced training platform that includes coding, programming using Java, and basic engineering.
Again if your team or school is interested to join, be sure to register online and select that program that best suits you.
