General

• Team members must make all decisions and do all the work on the Robot Game and Project. This includes deciding on strategy, building, programming, researching, choosing a problem and innovative solution and presenting at a tournament.
• Anyone who works with the team (coaches, mentors, topic experts, parents, etc.) may teach team members new skills, handle logistics for the team, ask questions to get team members thinking and remind them of the FIRST^® LEGO^® League rules. Adults play an important role in coaching and supporting their team, but the team’s robot and project should be the work of team members.

Team Members

• A team must have a minimum of two (2) and a maximum of six (6) students. A team with more than six (6) children will not be eligible for awards at an official tournament.
• Students may be members of only one (1) FIRST^® LEGO^® League team per season. 
• Allowed ages in U.S., Canada and Mexico: 9 – 14 years.
• No team member may be outside the maximum allowed age in your region prior to January 1 of the year the challenge is released.
  • For example, in the United States a student who turns 15 in May of 2020 would be eligible to compete in the challenge released in August of 2020, whereas a child who turned 15 in December 2020 would not.

Robot Game

Each team’s robot must be built in accordance with all allowable parts, software and other rules.

Project

Teams must demonstrate completion of all three (3) steps of the project (identify a problem, develop an innovative solution and share with others) as part of their presentation and fulfill any other requirements as defined in the annual project document.

Core Values

FIRST^® LEGO^® League expresses its philosophies of Gracious Professionalism and Cooperation through its Core Values. We ask that everyone associated with every team understands and honors these Core Values.

• Discovery: We explore new skills and ideas.
• Innovation: We use creativity and persistence to solve our problems.
• Impact: We apply what we learn to improve our world.
• Inclusion: We respect each other and embrace our differences.
• Teamwork: We are stronger when we work together.
• Fun: We enjoy and celebrate what we do!

Judging and Awards

Official tournaments, including the event at NSBE’s Annual Convention, must follow the judging and awards structure determined by FIRST^® LEGO^® League. Although the audience mostly sees teams playing the Robot Game at tournaments, teams are also being judged on:

• Core Values
• Project
• Robot Design

Tournament rubrics and award descriptions can be found on the FIRST website.

Application Procedure

NSBE FIRST® LEGO® League registration is completed via an online application through Jotform. The application can be found here. To fully complete registration, each team must also complete registration on the FIRST website. Each team interested in participating for the 2022-2023 program year must submit an application for the program and meet all the team requirements. Completing all the information in the application is vital.