Getting Started

Once you have created your Team, and have 2 Coaches

You are ready to start planning your FLL season

Decide on a Meeting location

Your team will need a location to hold your meetings. The most ideal place is at a team member/coaches house. You will have the most flexibility as to days and times and no transporting of supplies for each meeting. It can be as simple as some space in a basement. You will need room for a 4'x8' LEGO table, where you will be testing and practicing with your robot.

Meeting Days and Times

Your team will need to decide on how many days/hours per week they would like to meet. A suggestion would be 2 days per week 2 hours per meeting. The kids need to decide how much time they are willing to commit to. You may need to put a little more time in as you get close to the Competition.

Building the LEGO Table

Building the LEGO Table: Your team is responsible for building their table. There are simple instructions and building material list at the link below: https://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/fll/table-build.pdf

Suggestion: Add metal folding legs to your table, instead of using saw horses

Read the FLL Yearly Challenge Guide

You can access the Challenge Guide @ https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/fll/challenge-and-resources

Challenge is released August 1st 11:00am

Have EVERYONE read the Challenge Guide Rules and Missions carefully and then go over them as a team, to make sure everyone understands.

Check the Robot Game and Project Updates

Check the Robot Game and Project Updates each meeting to see if there are any updates, corrections or clarifications to missions or the project. You can access the updates @ https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/fll/challenge-and-resources

Building your Field

Field Kits will be available sometime in August. Your team will receive a Field Mat and LEGOS to build your mission models. There will be detailed instructions available online on how to build and place each model. Mission models building instructions will be available online August 1st @ https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/fll/challenge-and-resources

Plan your Season

  • You can break the team down into groups of 2 or 3 kids during meetings to help complete some of the tasks below. Ex: One group works on programming a mission, while another group does research for the project.
  • You can have the groups swap tasks at some point during the meeting, so everyone gets a chance to work on multiple things
  • Some tasks are better to do as a team (Ex.: Core Values Activities, Field Trips, Meetings with Experts, etc.)
  • You can follow the 13 week meeting plan in your team binder to help guide you through what tasks you should be working on each meeting
  • Start a meeting routine for your team. Something the kids can follow and know what to expect.

Start a Team Journal

  • Use google drive or any other collaborative program to enter your journal info
  • Enter what was worked on for Robot, Project & Core Values. You can enter info from field trips or meetings with experts, too.
  • Designate a different team member to be in charge of the journal each meeting, to keep everyone involved
  • Take lots of photos to document your journey and add them into your team journal
  • This journal can be used to help prepare for judges questions by helping you recall all the different things that you went through during the season. What problems you encountered, how you solved them, experts you met with, etc.

FLL Season To-Do List

  • Start a Team Journal
  • Learn the FLL Core Values
  • Decide on a Team Name and Create a team logo for t-shirts
  • Read the Judging Rubrics to see what the judges are looking for in all 3 areas
  • Build the robot
  • Build attachments for the robot to help complete missions
  • Plan/decide what missions to attempt
  • Program the missions; Practice running the missions in the 2 ½ minutes
  • Research the project topic/problem
  • Create an innovative solution to solve the problem
  • Plan/Create the research project presentation to present your solution
  • Make display info (tri-fold boards, etc.) for project presentation
  • Core Values teamwork activities
  • Make table decorations for your team table at the competition
  • Make team sign for Opening Ceremonies at the competition
  • Decide who will run the robot missions at the competition ( It can be 2 specific kids, or groups of 2 kids can swap out for different missions, whatever the kids decide)
  • Print out programs to bring to Robot Design/Programming Judging
  • Complete Team Info Sheet and Robot Design Summary to bring to Competition