FIRST Lego League (FLL)
FIRST Lego League (FLL) is an international competition organized by FIRST for elementary and middle school students.  Each year in August, FIRST LEGO League introduces a scientific and real-world challenge for teams to focus and research on.  The robotics part of the competition involves designing and programming Lego Mindstorms robots to complete tasks.  The students work out solutions to the various problems they are given and then meet for regional tournaments to share their knowledge, compare ideas, and display their robots.  The competition is split into three judged sections and a live robot run. The first judging session, Core Values, is designed to detect how the team works together and uses the FLL Core Values, which include teamwork. Teams are also asked to perform a teamwork exercise. Secondly, in the Robot Design, or technical judging, the team explains how they designed their robot and demonstrates their programs to the judges. Thirdly, in the Project, the students must research a topic related to the current challenge and create an innovative solution. The teams have 5 minutes to present their ideas, and the judges have another 5 minutes to ask questions. Finally, the students must use the robots they designed and built to autonomously complete a set of tasks on the challenge mat.