Students began to prepare for the regional by first building all the mission models for the robot game.

 As well, each 3rd and 4th grade team was divided into two subteams. Those two subteams would be their regional team. Within each subteam, students were then put in pairs or groups of three. In pairs or trios, students reviewed the design requirements for their robot and chose a robot design using coach guidance. Students built their initial robot.

Also, as a part of Session 1 and 2 students learned about the white energy journey and about the blue energy journey. Each energy journey is tied to 3-4 mission models. In the white energy journey the energy sources are the solar panels and the wind turbine, these energy units can be stored in the energy storage battery, and the units are consumed when you watch TV.  In the blue energy journey students learn about hydroelectric dams which generate energy through water currents. The energy generated from the hydroelectric dam can be used to power the toy factory mission model.

For each energy journey, coaches curate a selection of videos and articles that will further the teams' understanding of these different journeys. For example, students learned about efforts to cover the Sahara Dessert, oceans, and even the Moon in solar panels. The team reviewed an article about how wind energy was proving very expensive to Europe Also, after learning about solar, wind, and hydroelectric energy students were able to make connections to their own lives.  Many students pointed out that they have some solar panels in their home and quickly located the solar panels at school

In Session 3 and 4 students began to solve some of the mission models: the television mission, wind turbine mission, toy factory mission, solar farm mission, and energy storage mission.  Coaches began to give the teams some strategies such as: to think of the field as almost two different fields, to use the quadrants in the launch areas to their advantage during placement, and to think of the attachment their robot would need before to begin to code the mission. 

Also, the teams learned about the yellow and orange energy journeys. The yellow energy journey was linked to the hybrid car, oil platform, and renewable battery mission model. In the yellow energy journey the teams learned about hybrid energy, the world's reliance on oil, batteries and the waste caused by batteries, and finally about innovative technologies such as carbon capture. The orange energy journey was linked to the power plant and smart grid. Teams learned about power grid failures caused by high demands of energy and increment weather.

As well, during sessions 3 and 4, students started to wonder how much renewable energy the school uses. Students had already noticed the solar panels but observed there were very few.

In sessions 5 and 6 teams kept working to solve missions. Many missions required an arm, so the teams learned about different gear mechanisms which would change the direction of rotation of motors. 

During session 5, the coaches invited Manuel Preciado, the school's project manager, who as an electrical engineer and former CFE employee, was the expert on the school's solar panel system. Manuel helped clarify for the teams what percentage of the school's power is renewable and showed them the school's future plan to increase its percentage of renewable energy. Students were surprised to learn the solar panels output was only 5% of the total amount of energy the school needs.

In session 6, each of the 4 subteams (Mini Maxers,  Robo Warriors, Robo Bros, and Machine Masters) had to analyze all the different robots their team was using and choose one robot and design. In FLL Challenge, each team is only allowed one robot. Once each team selected their final robot design, the teams then had to recreate two more versions of the robot. In this way,  the smaller teams of 2 or 3 within a subteam could continue to solve missions but would no longer need to adapt their codes to a different robot as everyone on the subteam would be now using the same robot design.

Lastly, in sessions 5 and 6 each subteam identified the problem their team wanted to focus on. Both Mini Maxers and Robo Warriors identified their problem as the school only getting 5% of their total energy from solar panels. Robo Bros focused on the problem with using power lines being the main means of distribution of electricity. Machine Masters focused on lithium ion batteries.

In sessions 7 and 8 the teams finished building their recreations of the final robot design and got to work modifying code solutions and/or attachments to the robot.  As well, coaches held mini-competitions to help clarify the robot game rules and get teams used to the time constraints of the robot game.

In terms of innovation project each team selected their innovative solution and did research on whether their solution was already currently being done.  Students began to create power point presentations and/or posters and started to plan their prototype.

For sessions 9-10 coaches helped teams come up with a game plan for the robot game. Teams started to figure out the order in which they will complete missions and which missions to ignore completely. Also, since coaches noticed that many subteams were struggling to solve new missions, they helped the team assign specific missions to specific pairs of students.

In terms of innovation project students began to use Tinkercad to design their prototpyes and continued to work on their posters or power point presentations.

The last two practices before the regional were very busy. Teams checked missions and worked on solving new ones. Students waited for their 3D models to be printed or used LEGO to prototype. Posters and power points were finished and teams practiced their presentations.