The World's Largest STEM Competition
FIRST® LEGO® League introduces science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to children ages 4-16 (ages vary by country) through fun, exciting, hands-on learning. FIRST LEGO League participants gain real-world problem-solving experiences through a guided, global robotics programme, helping today’s students and teachers build a better future together.
In FIRST LEGO League, students engage in hands-on STEM experiences, building confidence, growing their knowledge and developing habits of learning. FIRST LEGO League’s three divisions inspire young children to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding, and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics. All while getting the chance to compete regionally, nationally or even internationally!
The World's Largest STEM Competition
FIRST® LEGO® League introduces science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to children ages 4-16 (ages vary by country) through fun, exciting, hands-on learning. FIRST LEGO League participants gain real-world problem-solving experiences through a guided, global robotics programme, helping today’s students and teachers build a better future together.
In FIRST LEGO League, students engage in hands-on STEM experiences, building confidence, growing their knowledge and developing habits of learning. FIRST LEGO League’s three divisions inspire young children to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding, and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics. All while getting the chance to compete regionally, nationally or even internationally!
Inspiring Students to Engage
FIRST® LEGO® League is designed to have a lasting and positive impact on participants across all demographic groups.
Our rigorous multi-year longitudinal study, conducted by Brandeis University Center for Youth and Communities, provides strong evidence that participation does just that.
Even with just one year of participation in FIRST programmes, study participants are two to three times more likely to have gains in STEM outcomes than a comparison group of peers not participating.
The Three Divisions of FIRST® LEGO® League:
Explore
In Explore, teams of pupils ages 6-10 focus on the fundamentals of engineering as they explore real-world problems, learn to design and code, and create unique solutions made with LEGO® bricks and powered by LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Essential.
Benefits:
- Understand concepts and building STEM skills
- Develop habits of learning
Challenge
Teams of students ages 9-16 engage in research, problem-solving, coding and engineering – building and programming a LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime robot that navigates the missions of a robot game. As part of Challenge, teams also participate in a research project to identify and solve a relevant real-world problem.
Benefits:
- Understand real-world uses of STEM
- Apply critical thinking skills
Season Theme
Every year, FIRST® LEGO® League releases a new challenge based on a real-world, scientific theme.
The 2024-2025 season theme (launched 6th August 2024) is called SUBMERGEDSM.
This season, children will learn about how and why people explore the oceans. Our discoveries beneath the ocean surface teach us how this complex ecosystem supports a healthy future for the plants and animals that live there. More than 80% of the ocean remains unexplored, offering curious minds deep opportunities to dive into expeditions.
Getting Started
You can register for FIRST® LEGO® League as an individual team or by using the Class Pack. The Class Pack includes all the materials needed to run the programme and is designed for groups of up to 30 children (3 to 5 teams), enabling every student in a classroom to take part.
The Team Meeting Guide helps teachers guide teams through 12 sessions as they design, build and code a LEGO® robot that navigates missions of the robot game, whilst also developing an innovation project solution to a real-world problem. Throughout the Class Pack experience, teams will additionally develop the FIRST Core Values which include teamwork, inclusion and discovery.