PRESS ROOM & NEWS

FIRST and LEGO Education Challenge Students Worldwide to Get in the Game with PLAYMAKERS and RePLAY Seasons

Children in 114 Countries to Invent New Ways and Places to Play, Move and Stay Active

FIRST Introduces Remote Event Hub, Continues to Deliver Life-Changing Experiences to Young People Around the World


MANCHESTER, N.H., August 4, 2020 — FIRST®, a robotics community that prepares young people for the future, and LEGO® Education announced that the 2020-2021 FIRST® LEGO® League season will task students to research and invent new ways and places to play, move and stay active during the PLAYMAKERSSM (for FIRST LEGO League Discover and FIRST LEGO League Explore students, grade PreK-4) and RePLAYSM (for FIRST LEGO League Challenge students, grades 4-8) season. In response to continued safety concerns and necessary social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, FIRST will offer remote event options for teams around the world, with the intent of making the experience as close as possible to a traditional FIRST program event.

For regions around the world that continue to be disrupted by COVID-19 and require social distancing, FIRST will offer remote event options for FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge. The goal of the FIRST Remote Event Hub is to make the experience as close as possible to a traditional FIRST program event with the necessary modifications to accommodate a remote environment.

“During these uncertain times, FIRST is committed – now more than ever – to deliver the life-changing experiences our programs offer to young people around the world,” said Chris Rake, Vice President of Programs, FIRST. “As we all adapt to unprecedented change, it’s imperative that we continue to raise and support our students to be science and technology leaders and innovators. STEM has always been the catalyst that can drive change, and FIRST inspires the next generation who will go on to better our world – preventing pandemics, designing for equity, and creating opportunity. That’s why we are creating solutions to continue to serve youth throughout the world, despite the challenges we are all facing right now.”

Learn more about the FIRST Remote Event Hub and FIRST’s commitment to its community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the FIRST LEGO League PLAYMAKERS and RePLAY Challenges, FIRST collaborated with experts in the fields of child development, engineering, occupational therapy and playground design. These experts, who made up the Challenge Advisory Team, helped to create a theme and challenge missions that reflect what it takes to motivate people to become more active, and to turn inactive spaces into active ones.

“FIRST LEGO League encourages young people to be problem solvers. We have embraced that same mindset to prepare for a season that takes place in unusual and uncertain circumstances, developing remote solutions that cater to social distancing needs, home schooling or the inability to host physical events in some regions, “ said Camilla Bottke, Global Head of Competitions, LEGO Education. “We are excited to seeing our teams around the world collaborate, innovate, and have fun as they build engineering, programming and presenting skills, while inventing ways to incorporate active play and exercise into our lives during the PLAYMAKERS and RePLAY season.”

Team registration for all FIRST LEGO League divisions is now open.

  • PLAYMAKERS Challenge for FIRST LEGO League Discover and FIRST LEGO League Explore

The 2020-2021 PLAYMAKERS season will inspire children in grades PreK-4 to explore fun, new ways to encourage people to play and be active. FIRST LEGO League Discover students (grades PreK-1) are tasked with designing more places for people to climb, run, swing, roll, and jump. Children will use LEGO® DUPLO® bricks to build play structures and obstacle courses on a mat, for people to be physically active.

FIRST LEGO League Explore students (grades 2-4) will learn to build and code their LEGO Education WeDo 2.0 to power a model of a LEGO obstacle course of their design. During the process they will explore, create, test, and share their ideas.

  • RePLAY Challenge for FIRST LEGO League Challenge

The 2020-2021 RePLAY season will encourage students in grades 4-8 to step into the world of sports and develop new, innovative ways to encourage others to play and be active. Participants will build and code their LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 or LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime to perform play and fitness-themed missions in the RePLAY Robot Game. The missions reflect potential thought-starters for their self-directed Innovation Project, where students will identify a problem related to people not being active enough, research the problem and design a new piece of technology or improve an existing one to help them solve that problem.

All FIRST LEGO League divisions are guided by the FIRST Core Values that celebrate discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun. Coaches receive Team Meeting Guides to help facilitate the program and student receive Engineering Notebooks to document their experiences.

FIRST LEGO League belongs to the Progression of Programs offered by FIRST. FIRST is an international not-for-profit organization founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators.

LEGO Education is a founding partner of FIRST LEGO League. FIRST LEGO League is delivered annually through the support of global sponsors LEGO Education, the LEGO Foundation, and Rockwell Automation.
 

About FIRST®  
Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies and more than $80 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST® Robotics Competition for students in Grades 9-12; FIRST® Tech Challenge for Grades 7-12; and FIRST® LEGO® League Discover, Explore, and Challenge for Grades K-8. Gracious Professionalism® is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.firstinspires.org.