Lego League Coaching

Teams are beginning to get started for the 2011 season, so I wanted to point rookie coaches to my The First Meeting post from last year. The post describes what you should do to get ready for your first meeting and what you should accomplish. To summarize, the first meeting should be an introductory meeting. [...]

The Food Factor Challenge gets officially released tomorrow at 12pm EDT. Are you ready?

A few nights ago, ABC aired a special about FIRST just before prime time. It was produced by Will.i.am, the front man for the Black Eyed Peas. I apologize for not announcing the special earlier because it is a big deal that a celebrity is getting involved to support and promote an educational program like [...]

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been three weeks since the 2011 season opened and I haven’t had a chance to post until today. This year’s topic is food safety. I’m looking forward to my team learning about the topic because I don’t know much about it. What technology is out there? What are the [...]

The 2010 FLL season is over. The state competitions were held all this month (ours was this past Saturday) and living rooms, basements, and garages can now be reclaimed for their intended purposes. This was another good season for me. My all-girls team won their regional tournament and placed 13th overall at state. I had [...]

Parents want to help, but don’t think they understand robotics enough Parents can help by building robot Give little tasks to parents along the season to reduce your stress Parents can help prepare for competition Don’t demand help, but don’t be afraid to ask In my first year as coach, I read that coaches should [...]

The 2010 Lego League season, also known as Body Forward, begins officially today. The details will be released at noon. If you haven’t registered your team yet, you should do so soon. Fields kits are shipping and teams are getting excited for the new season. My new team met tonight and we made good progress [...]

If you’re a rookie coach, read up on Lego League Introduce kids to each other Have kids interview each other or play an ice breaker game Pick a team name Assign homework of creating a t-shirt design Have parents fill out sign-up sheet Establish a regular schedule with the parents Your first team meeting will [...]

Being a Lego League coach is a HUGE time commitment I usually start with two meetings a week I call in sub-teams as necessary as we get closer to competition As coach, you can decide how much to meet As with any activity, the time you put into it will dictate what you get out [...]

FIRST is an organization started in 1996 to encourage kids to learn about robotics. Their first “tournament” consisted of only a few teams and their robot task was just to get the robot to go around in a circle. Today, FIRST has chapters around the world and almost 5000 teams competing in just the U.S. [...]