The 2016 FIRST LEGO League Jr. Season is full of some amazing changes that greatly expand the availability of the program, and make it easier for anyone to coach a team.
New Materials
FIRST worked with the SEA Research Foundation to pilot a new model for FIRST LEGO League Jr in the spring of 2016, which was very successful, and is now bringing that new model to all teams in the program. This model introduces some new materials:
- Engineering Notebooks: Every student will get their own Engineering Notebook that contains a series of lessons (called Sessions) that guide the students on their CREATURE CRAZE journey. This includes learning about the challenge, developing a Model, designing a Show Me Poster, and preparing for an Expo. This 32 page document is printed by FIRST and shipped as part of the teams registration materials.
- Team Meeting Guide: Every team will get one Team Meeting Guide for coaches that gives complete instructions on how to administer the FIRST LEGO League Jr. program. It outlines 12 sessions providing 12-16 hours of guided activities for teams.
- Site Administrators Guide: For those purchasing the new Site Model (see below), they receive a Site Administrator’s guide that details how to manage groups of teams and details on running an Expo.
- Inspire Set: This LEGO set is created just for FIRST LEGO League Jr. teams and will be used by them to complete their challenge for the season. (Instructions available here)
Guides and Notebooks will ship to teams in English, but can be downloaded from FIRST in Spanish.
New Registration Options
FIRST is introducing new registration options for the 2016 Season. The Season Pass options are available in Small (12 team) and Large (24 team) variants that allow sites bulk order teams at a significantly reduced rate. Additionally, the options allow sites to run the program twice, and provides enough materials to do so. For example, the 12-team package can be used to run a fall program with 12 teams and spring program with 12 teams for a total of 24 teams!
- 1+Inspire+Set
- 6+Student+Engineering+Notebooks
- 1+Team+Meeting+Guide
- Option+to+purchase+1+Starter+Set
- +
- 12+Inspire+sets
- 144+Student+Engineering+Notebooks
- 12+Team+Meeting+Guides
- 1+Site+Administrators+Guide
- Option+to+purchase+up+to+12+Starter+Sets
- 24+Inspire+sets
- 288+Student+Engineering+Notebooks
- 24+Team+Meeting+Guides
- 1+Site+Administrators+Guide
- Option+to+purchase+up+to+24+Starter+Sets