FIRST LEGO League Jr.
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| Sport | Robotics-related games |
|---|---|
| Founder | Dean Kamen |
| Inaugural season | 2004 |
| Country | International |
| Related competitions |
FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Tech Challenge FIRST Lego League |
| Official website | www |
FIRST LEGO League Jr. is a non-competitive robotics program designed for children ages six to ten. It is one of the programs established by FIRST.
FIRST LEGO League Jr. follows the same theme given to FIRST LEGO League. While FIRST LEGO League Jr. teams conduct research projects and design autonomous robots specifically to carry out missions relating to the topic, FIRST LEGO League Jr. teams conduct much smaller projects and makes models out of LEGO elements to illustrate one part of the theme. They may also use LEGO WeDo, a programmable robotics kit, as part of their models.
Currently, the program is available in Belgium, Canada, Israel, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and United States.
FIRST LEGO League Jr. League started out as a pilot program in 2004 to encourage young children to have interest in science and engineering. In the first pilot year, the teams were provided with some specific LEGO parts by FIRST, but that idea was dropped in later years. Teams now use any LEGO elements that they have to build the models. The pilot years were done in three phases from 2004 to 2006. The program was officially launched in 2007 during the Power Puzzle season.
During the first five years, the program was not referred as a robotic program. The only requirements to build models out of LEGO elements were to have some moving parts and include at least one simple machine based on a given topic of that year. FIRST has provided an option to purchase a FIRST LEGO League Jr. Base Kit that contains many LEGO elements including gears, motor, and other TECHNIC elements. In 2009, with the new robotics kit by LEGO Group, the program included LEGO WeDo as an optional kit which allows children to connect a motor and/or a sensor to other LEGO bricks, gears and other TECHNIC elements. It also has drag-and-drop programming interface for children to write robotics programs.
The number of participants has been increasing each year. However, the program was limited to the United States and Canada until 2009.
FIRST LEGO League Jr. is designed to be a non-competitive and community-based program. The teams are formed within local community and participate in local events. FIRST provides guidelines to help coaches to run their teams and local organizers to run FIRST LEGO League Jr. events. However, FIRST does not organize any FIRST LEGO League Jr. event, unlike other FIRST programs.
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