My son is almost 6 and I was thinking of ordering some previous years explore kit and doing it together with him at home. Anyone has done this? What are resources etc that you recommend for that?

We can't join this years founders edition for various reason (mainly he's still too small to fit in with a team and needs a bit more hand holding). So, figured this would be fun for him to do and a good introduction to various concepts (he has played a bit with scratch jr and loved it)

It's a pity that lego and first collaboration stops next year because I'm not convinced at all by their new Computer Science & AI Kit (besides the fact that they would have had a very hard time to make the name more generic than that). So, not sure what we'll do or how things will shake out...

The kids came up with an idea for an app - this would require for them to have learning sessions with an expert craftsman, an AI expert to be able to learn how to do prompting, and then some experts in the biodiversity field. Their end product would be an AI created app - but they will do a lot of work before the AI part to make it all come together. Would this be allowed? I know AI is frowned upon sometimes but there is no way in the world a bunch of 11 year old kids can create an app themselves.

Hello!! I’m a coach doing founders edition, and my kiddos lost their keystone species. Do they NEED to be built out of bag 10 pieces, or can they use what we have? Bag 10 parts quickly got mixed in with everything else, and I’m not sure what can be used. Thank you!

During the FLL challenge can we use two different robots for the different missions but not simultaneously

Olá, pessoal!

Meu nome é Jeffisley Kauã, sou estudante de Engenharia Civil da Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT), Brasil, e mentor técnico da Heliobot Technology, uma equipe de robótica educacional composta por estudantes do 6º ao 9º ano do Ensino Fundamental.

Atualmente, nossos estudantes estão desenvolvendo um projeto inovador voltado à biodiversidade, à natureza e à conservação ambiental. O projeto encontra-se em sua etapa final de desenvolvimento e estamos buscando pessoas dispostas a contribuir com seus conhecimentos, experiências e perspectivas.

Gostaríamos de estabelecer contato com:

• Pesquisadores e profissionais das áreas de biodiversidade, ecologia, biologia, ciências ambientais e áreas correlatas.
• Estudantes universitários, professores e grupos de pesquisa.
• Equipes de robótica e entusiastas das áreas de ciência, tecnologia e inovação ambiental.
• Voluntários interessados em ciência, educação e conservação da natureza.

Como você pode contribuir?

Existem duas maneiras principais de colaborar:

1. Reunião virtual (discussão e feedback)

Gostaríamos de realizar breves reuniões virtuais nas quais nossos estudantes possam apresentar o projeto, compartilhar suas ideias, esclarecer dúvidas e receber sugestões e avaliações construtivas de profissionais ou entusiastas da área.

2. Pesquisa por formulário (Google Forms)

Também estamos realizando uma pesquisa para reunir opiniões e perspectivas que nos ajudem a avaliar e aprimorar nosso projeto.

Caso tenha alguns minutos disponíveis para responder ao questionário, sua participação será extremamente valiosa!

📋 Link da pesquisa: https://forms.gle/CFD6hURPtGDCnNdq7

Por que essa participação é importante?

Mais do que desenvolver uma solução tecnológica, nosso objetivo é incentivar jovens estudantes a se envolverem com a pesquisa científica, o pensamento crítico e a resolução de desafios ambientais reais.

Para muitos de nossos estudantes, a oportunidade de conversar com pesquisadores e profissionais de diferentes países representaria uma experiência educacional inesquecível.

Toda participação é voluntária, e mesmo uma breve conversa ou uma resposta ao formulário já contribuiria significativamente para nossa equipe.

Caso tenha interesse em colaborar, fique à vontade para comentar nesta publicação ou entrar em contato por mensagem privada!

Você também pode conhecer melhor nossa equipe pelo Instagram: equipe.heliobot (com o arroba).

Agradecemos imensamente pela atenção e pelo apoio!

Jeffisley Kauã
Mentor Técnico – Heliobot Technology
Graduando em Engenharia Civil – UFMT, Brasil 🇧🇷

Hi all

I "head coach" a few teams (4) and we are so confused with the concept of an innovation project.

Our teams are under new management and didn't compete for a while before I resurrected them. Last season (Unearthed) was our first season after starting over. What the heck is an innovation project? We asked the judges what was expected, and we tried, but what we were told by the judge at a scrimmage (that it's lowkey, not science fair-like, and is mostly a thought experiment) was wildly incorrect. We showed up woefully unprepared and were destroyed in actual comp. The "problem" is so vague, and the solutions seem endless. What are we actually supposed to "do"?

Hello! How are you doing?

We are the Red Hammer Robotics Team from Brazil, and we would like to invite you to participate in our project!

We kindly invite you to complete a brief evaluation form about a prototype designed to help reduce the decline in bee populations.

https://forms.gle/D9P5Hw3SA9iVbtwq7

Your feedback will be essential in evaluating our proposal and improving our project.

Thank you in advance for your time and contribution!

I started a new team and ordered all the recommended kits, 2x computer and ai, 1x hardware kit, and the FLL kit. In the FLL kit, there’s 2x boards and it looks like enough bags for 2x sets of missions, but wouldn’t that require 4x driving bases and 4x controllers? Theres only 1 driving base in each robot kit

​

Hi everyone!

Our team is using Pybricks to program our FLL robot, and we're trying to improve its speed and precision. We've already made several adjustments, but we're still having a couple of problems that we can't fully solve.

Here's what we've done so far:

- Lowered the robot's tolerances. The robot doesn't get stuck because of these settings.

- Used the built-in gyro PID control.

- Made some additional adjustments to improve the robot's performance.

However, we're still experiencing two main issues:

1. Slow transitions between actions

Our robot seems to have a delay between actions. Even when one movement finishes, it takes longer than expected to start the next one. We want to make transitions as fast and smooth as possible without sacrificing accuracy.

1. Inconsistent trajectories

Sometimes, the robot slightly deviates from its intended direction. Even a small angular error can accumulate or cause the robot to miss its target, ruining the rest of the trajectory.

We're trying to figure out whether these problems come from our code, PID settings, movement commands, robot mechanics, or something else.

Does anyone have suggestions for improving action transitions and maintaining consistent trajectories in Pybricks? We'd especially appreciate advice on reducing unnecessary delays, tuning movement control, or any techniques that have worked well for your FLL team.

Any suggestions or improvements would help us a lot. Thanks in advance!

We are trying modular attachments for the first time. Can some of you wizards explain why there is so much slack on the attached arm on the left of this image? It seems like there is a free fall of 20 degrees with even moving the motor. It’s causing a lot of precision issues. I wish I could upload the video here, I just that even when the motor is off, I can move the left arm up and down (20 degrees)

In the rule book for Mission 7, it says 20 points for "The mycelium is completely extended" and then 10 point bonus for "and a connection is formed between one team’s extended mycelium and the opposing team’s fully extended plant root (two bonuses possible)"

On the scoring website for "connections formed" 0, 1, 2

And I'm just having trouble understanding exactly what it means.

The 20 points for fully extended makes sense. Then do you get an additional 10 for "forming a connection" even if the other team doesn't extend their plant root? And 2x 10 bonus if they DO extend their plant root? Or am I missing something?

Thanks!

I'd like to recreate the full board with a lasercutting machine out of cardboard to create more samples for my students' practice. Does anyone have a good digitalized version of the Board to be used for this?

Thanks in advance!

We are leading a team of 4th graders for the BIOGLOW founders challenge. We have the models made. We have 2 hubs. How would you go about facilitating sessions with these numbers? It seems at most We can have 4 kids coding at once, and that is 2 at a computer/hubs. What do the other 5 do? Newbie here and would love any insight on how to keep 4th graders engaged.

Hey everyone! I’m a high school freshman in the Bay Area, and after transitioning from FLL to FTC last year, I realized just how massive the jump between the two programs is. FTC concepts are incredibly complex, and there isn't really a clear bridge between them, which leads to a lot of wasted time early in the season.

To help fix this, I'm starting a student-led initiative called The Young Gears to share tips, resources, and skills to help students make a smoother transition.

Since I'm just starting to build out our resource center, I would love to know: what FTC concepts did you find hardest to grasp coming out of FLL? Whether it's moving from block code to Java, manufacturing, or documentation, let me know what resources you wish you had.

Note: If you're a student struggling with the transition right now, or a local Bay Area team/mentor interested in collaborating, feel free to drop a comment below! (I have our basic project site ready, but I will leave the link out for now to respect spam rules—let me know if you'd like to see it).

The 1.2.0 beta of Handit Remote, an iOS controller for EV3, is almost ready. New drive modes, a new speedometer style, better accessibility and a more polished look and feel.

If your team or class runs EV3, pre-register for the TestFlight beta here:
https://handitremote.app/beta

I'd love to hear what would make it more useful in a classroom.

I was wondering if it was possible to go to regionals without having to do a qualifying tournament since all teams advance this year? I don’t want my team to have to spend money on qualifying tournament if we don’t have to, if anyone knows anything please let me know!

I heard that acronym at our weekend scrimmage and cracked up 😂

Really though, I am curious if this community intends to continue tracking the FIRST K-8 (... r/FK8, anyone?) branch of reality, or the Lego League branch (in which case, r/LL is available 😆), or simply dissipate and let both new communities find each other?

Hi everyone, I’m the leader of "Tupinambótica," an FLL robotics team from Corumbá, MS, Brazil. Fun fact: our city is located in the Pantanal biome. We’d like to hold a meeting with international teams; we plan to communicate in English or use translation apps if necessary. If any team is interested, please send us a message! Our coach will attend the meeting and is also available to chat with your team's coach beforehand. Best regards, Raphael.

I am coaching a team for the first time and am looking for some overview materials of the spike elements themselves. Is there any documentation of what element/attachment does what? I know there are the tutorials but I'm looking for some sort of reference sheet of what we would use when. Also any sort of reference sheet for the blocks in the spike app itself. Feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to understand what all the options are for moving this robot around, and then helping 4th graders understand it, and then apply it to the bioglo robot game.

Anyone else having issues with these 2 missions pulling on the map? The big tree leans forward when attached to the map pulling up on the back of the map. The humongous fungus kinda has the same issue with pulling on the mat.

Subject: Looking for EV3 Classroom Android APK for SEND Robotics Workshop

Hi everyone,

I'm a UK teacher preparing a LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 robotics workshop for teenagers with SEND.

I have Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 tablets (4 GB RAM) and Chromebooks, but LEGO has discontinued the Android download for EV3 Classroom.

Has anyone successfully installed the original EV3 Classroom Android app on a modern Samsung tablet or Chromebook? I'm particularly interested in finding a genuine, unmodified installer and learning whether Bluetooth communication with the EV3 brick still works.

I'd also welcome suggestions for alternative beginner-friendly EV3 programming software that works on Android tablets or Chromebooks.

Many thanks!