News

All the latest news about FIRST LEGO League Explore

The pandemic situation is limiting life again at the moment. Of course, this also affects FIRST LEGO League: team meetings, preparations, exhibitions, competitions - all this is difficult or only possible virtually these days. Also a precise planning remains difficult for the next weeks. The HANDS on TECHNOLOGY e.V. board, members as well as the office met yesterday and decided in view of the restrictions due to the pandemic situation to extend the period for the FIRST LEGO League Challenge competition season as follows to increase the chance for holding on-site events.

Our partner Stein Hanse e.V. initiates and organizes a LEGO building contest - in which you can also participate and build your own CARGO CONNECT world! More information about the participation and the process can be found in the official flyer available on our website, which you are welcome to share!

The FIRST LEGO League finals for Germany, Austria and Switzerland will of course also take place competely remote this season. You can put Saturday, May 15 in your calendars - that's when we will be celebrating the big final show with you!

The regional events are the highlights of each season - without our fantastic partners FIRST LEGO League would not be possible!

More than 2,000 schools were awarded the signet "MINT-friendly school" or "Digital school" last year - a record!

Our Team, the Bussibot, is a public school team based in Bussigny, Switzerland. It began with Hydrodynamics Season with one team of 3 members and 4 years later, there are 4 Challenge teams and 4 Explore teams participating! What a journey!

For the development of our STEM education programme FIRST LEGO League Challenge, we are looking for support for our team in Leipzig as soon as possible.

Network, question, learn, develop new ideas, and simply chat: At the Meetup the FIRST LEGO League community to exchange ideas.

The current situation did not allow for anything else: All Explore exhibitions and Challenge tournaments will take place completely remotely in the 2020/21 season.

In order to give teams more time, we have decided that regional remote exhibitions and tournaments will still be possible until the end of April.

For the 2020/21 finals, Challenge Teams can qualify directly from their regional tournament to the finals, there will be no qualifying tournaments.

On November 29 we closed the official registration for the 2020/21 season: Over 180 Explore Teams and over 770 Challenge Teams have registered.

New names and logos, new evaluation system for Challenge - a lot has changed this year, a new explanatory video was needed.

Teams, coaches, moderators, and guests met in the "Virtual Audimax" of the Brandenburg University of Technology on November 27 and experienced a great Explore exhibition despite the difficult conditions.

In the last few weeks we have found a few enthusiastic companies that want to enable even more children and young people to participate in FIRST LEGO League.

Our new team brochure presents the most important information about FIRST LEGO League for all (future) coaches, parents, teachers, teams or sponsors.

Our partner initiative "MINT Zukunft schaffen!" ("STEM initiative") is launching an exciting program, called GetIT, together with Future Foundations in the school year 2020/21 to promote IT and digital skills among students.

On two afternoons we met remotely with regional partners, coaches, alumni and friends of FIRST LEGO League at the Meetup 2020 and everyone was able to contribute their own topics.

Apply now, we have some of the last partial scholarships of the LEGO Foundation left to give out!

There might also be teams, that are only allowed to participate remotely. If there is no remote event (yet) in the desired region, you can now register for our transregional, remote events

Sign up for our virtual FIRST LEGO League Meetup on September 17 and 18, we are looking forward to seeing you there!

The wait is finally over for the teams: At 6 p.m. sharp we published the new missions for FIRST LEGO League Explore and Challenge!

Together with FIRST, LEGO and our Regional Partners we are currently working on alternatives for events that will not be able to take place because of local restrictions.

Once again this season we offer opportunities for teams that need some financial support to take part in FIRST LEGO League Explore and Challenge.

Virtual, hybride and on-site events: we are currently working on solutions for every situation that could potentially arise from restrictions due to the pandemic.

Best practices, questions and answers, sharing and networking: In addition to the regional partners, this year coaches of the 2020/21 season, volunteers, alumni and other friends of FIRST LEGO League are invited to our FIRST LEGO League Meetup 2020 on September 17 and 18.

For us, the reduction of the value added tax as of July 1 is a complex situation. After many discussions, we have decided to keep our communicated prices. In our detailed statement you will find the reasons.

Explore and develop together: In FIRST LEGO League, children and young adults find perfect challenges, exciting missions and relevant topics for every age. This is now reflected in the new names and logos.

Everyone's health is our top priority, which is why we are currently working on virtual solutions together with our great community and our regional partners.

With the 2020/21 FIRST LEGO League season, the association HANDS on TECHNOLOGY will focus on Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The FIRST LEGO League Final Central Europe and with it the FIRST LEGO League Junior exhibition were cancelled as a precaution regarding the Covis-19 virus. This was detemined together by the organisers HANDS on TECHNOLOGY e.V. and the Hochschule Offenburg on Friday, February, 29 2020.

All 78 FIRST LEGO League regional tournaments, two of the eight Semi Finals and a large part of the 42 FIRST LEGO League Junior exhibitions have successfully taken place and the first finalists for the FIRST LEGO League Final Central Europe are set!

Our mission is the promotion of young talent in the MINT sector. Our various educational programs inspire children and youth at an early age for science and technology. Unfortunately, in a few regions in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, programs are not yet offered, so we are looking for partners for the new season.

The FIRST® LEGO® League regional competitions in Central Europe run until mid-January 2020 and the FIRST® LEGO® League Junior exhibitions until late March – find all dates as download here.  
The evaluations of the individual FIRST® LEGO® League competitions are linked under “Results” on

Supporting our mission the promotion of young talent with a small contribution is quite simple! You can make our daily work for education and the promotion of young talent easier in many ways

FIRST® LEGO® League Junior there are still places available for some exhibition locations. The registration remains open until 4 weeks before the respective exhibition date or

FIRST® LEGO® League CITY SHAPERSM season – at the moment there are 964 teams subscribed. 23 of 81 regions are full, but in all other regions teams may register for the next 3 weeks, as long as slots are available. For the 35 FIRST® LEGO® League Junior exhibitions there are 172 teams registered so far. An overview of available slots

At the same time, FIRST® LEGO® League Junior covers many of the important learning content that is relevant to primary schools: the children learn to express their ideas, to find solutions in the group, to communicate with others and to present their ideas on a topic from the STEM area! By engaging in STEM topics, children acquire initial knowledge of technical and digital education. For schools we therefore offer the package “FIRST® LEGO® League Junior – In the classroom”.

With the beginning of the new school year you may find videos giving a deeper insight in the new program topics on our YouTube Channel. During FIRST® LEGO® League CITY SHAPERSM www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU0-rqPwXOM and FIRST® LEGO® League Junior BOOMTOWN BUILDSM www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyB5V2J-tl you may explore the design of the buildings of the future and how to shape a better future together.

With the help of supporters we are able to offer scholarships for our educational programs. There are still 3 FLL scholarships available from RS Components. And some partnerships between existing and new FIRST® LEGO® League and FIRST® LEGO® League Junior teams which we call “Bring a Friend”. This program is supported by SAGE Foundation.

Since April there 810 teams have registered for the FIRST® LEGO® League Season CITY SHAPERSM. 10 of 83 regions are already completed, in all others subscriptions are open until Oct 13th 2019 the latest or as long there are places available: www.first-lego-league.org/en/season/tournaments.html. For the 35 FIRST® LEGO® League Junior exhibitions there are 114 teams registered until now.

In about one week it is going to start again! On Aug 1st 6 p.m. the missions and building instructions will be released for the CITY SHAPERSM and BOOMTOWN BUILDSM Season. The most important information will be available on our websites for FIRST® LEGO® League and FIRST® LEGO® League Junior.

Since April there 630 teams have registered for the FIRST® LEGO® League Season CITY SHAPERSM. 9 of 83 regions are already completed, in all others subscriptions are open until Oct 13th 2019 the latest or as long there are places available.

With the help of supporters we are able to offer scholarships for our educational programs. 

Until Oct 13th the subscription for our educational programs is open. There are 84 FIRST® LEGO® League Regional Tournaments in the season 2019/20 and therefore we have listed 458 teams. Six regions are already completed, in the others there are still places available

With the help of sponsors, we may support teams taking part in our educational programs with scholarships. This time RS Components is providing 10 Full Scholarships for the participation in FIRST® LEGO® League. Furthermore, the SAGE Foundation supports 2x10 partnerships

From July 30th 2019 we will start sending out the challenge materials for CITY SHAPERSM and BOOMTOWN BUILDSM in Germany with the help of our logistical partner Christiani, in Austria with AustroTec and in Switzerland with Educatec! Further details about the shipping in other countries will be announced via email. After that we ship weekly

Since April 8th, 2019 the subscription for the educational programs is open again. 258 Teams have already registered for the 84 FIRST® LEGO® League Regional Tournaments that will start into the season 2019/20. 3 Regions are completed already, teams may register in all others until Oct 13th

At the same time, the junior program covers many of the important learning content that is relevant to primary schools: the children learn to express their ideas and to find solutions in the group. The children communicate and present their ideas on a topic from the STEM area - which they have previously implemented together in a LEGO® model and a team poster - pure teamwork! By engaging in STEM topics, children acquire initial knowledge

Although registration is open yet, the missions will not be published before Aug 1st, 2019. But we can at least name the topic: for FIRST® LEGO® League and FIRST® LEGO® League Junior teams the season 2019/20 is about buildin

From April 8th the registration for both educational programms is opening again. First insights what teams have to expect and the season planning about the new season for FIRST® LEGO® League and FIRST® LEGO® League Junior in 2019/20 are online

All 79 FIRST LEGO League Regional Tournaments and most of the 34 FIRST LEGO League Junior Exhibitions have already been conducted successfully. Also, the first FLL Semi Finals have been run.

Our educational programs successfully promote youth in STEM in various regions in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland. Nevertheless there are regions where students do not have the chance to take part in our programs so far.

We have started an impact survey last December among german speaking coaches of our programs FIRST LEGO League and FIRST LEGO League Junior and have already received some exciting feedback. If you are German speaking coach and have not yet answered our 16 short questions please use the following links to our survey

Supporting the promotion of young talent with a small contribution is quite simple! As a supportive member in our friends’ association HANDS on e. V. you become a passive member and can support the purpose of the association by your membership fee.

The FIRST® LEGO® League regional competitions in Central Europe run until mid-January 2019 and FIRST® LEGO® League Junior exhibitions until late March – find all dates as download here. The evaluations of the individual FIRST® LEGO® League competitions are linked under “Results” on the individual regional websites.

For FLL Junior there are free slots for some oft he expo locations: Halle (D), Regensburg (D), Prag (CZ), Bad Radkersburg (CH), Zentralschweiz (CH), Zurich (CH), Freiamt Aargau (CH) as well as Vorarlberg (AT). Subscribe for FIRST® LEGO® League Junior and discover space with your elementary school team during MISSION MOONSM season.

Your FLL Junior team would like to experience the challenge but does not have the opportunity to join one of the expositions?

Since April, 978 teams have registered for the current FIRST® LEGO® League Season INTO ORBITSM. 25 of 79 regions are fully occupied so far. The registration will be open until Oct 21st, 2018. For the FIRST® LEGO® League Junior Season MISSION MOONSM, 132 teams have registered.

You would like to be part of our educational programs FIRST® LEGO® League and FIRST® LEGO® League Junior and hence to support the promotion of young talents? You have a technical, educational or IT background?

Who is working behind the scenes of HANDS on TECHNOLOGY and what ist he idea of the non profit? 

Since April, 760 teams have registered for the current FIRST® LEGO® League Season INTO ORBITSM.

Alexander Gerst wishes all FLL and FLL Junior teams good luck! Matching this year´s topic he sends his greetings directly from the ISS which is in the earth´s orbit.

You've had a lot of fun with the FIRST® LEGO® League Junior but now you are too old to participate? No problem!

The American foundation and idea giver for the two educational programs FIRST® has updated the core values ​​for FIRST® LEGO® League and FIRST® LEGO® League Junior.

Since April, 683 teams have registered for the current FIRST® LEGO® League Season INTO ORBITSM.

Since July 24, 2018, the FLL Challenge Sets INTO ORBITSM as well as the FLL Junior Inspire Sets MISSION MOONSM are shipped.

August 1, 2018, 4 pm, the challenge materials will be published. Find the building instructions, the missions and ...

Again, there will be the opportunity for totally new FLL Junior teams this season to lend a LEGO® Education WeDo 2.0 set from us.

Since April, 503 FLL Teams have registered for the current FLL Season INTO ORBITSM. 7 regions are already booked-out. For the FLL Junior Season ...

We are delighted about 10 new FLL partner and 22 new FLL Junior partner in this season. We warmly welcome the FLL partners in ...

As in every FLL Season, we accompany FLL Teams and FLL partners with conference calls to different topics.

You want to use the time until the kick-off for practicing? We recommend our offer. The FLL Challenge Sets HYDRO DYNAMICSSM ...

The best teams from Central Europe successfully participated in the FLL World Festival in Detroit (USA), the FLL Open Invitational Central Europe ...

Since May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force. We adapted our Privacy Policy on our websites.

Since April, 218 FLL Teams have registered for the current FLL Season “INTO ORBITSM”. For the FLL Junior Season “MISSION MOONSM”, 17 teams are registered. (status: May 14th, 2018).

The FLL operational partner from Greece, eduACT, organises a 1-week robotics summer camp for children aged 6-16. Participants have the chance to share their FLL experiences and

Since Monday, April 9th, the registration is open for the FIRST® LEGO® League Season INTO ORBITSM and the FIRST® LEGO® League Junior Season MISSION MOONSM.

For FIRST® LEGO® League Junior there is a new website. Find all information about the junior project as well as the registration to FLL Junior at: www.first-lego-league-junior.org/en.

Also in the FLL Season 2018/19, we would like to ask already existing coaches to bring new teams into the FLL program.

Great impressions and good memories of the FLL Final Central Europe in Aachen are captured in a photo gallery on Flickr and our website.

There are great international events awaiting the FLL Junior Teams in the current AQUA ADVENTURESM Season 2017/18:

70 FIRST LEGO League Tournaments and 11 FIRST LEGO League Junior Exhibitions have already been conducted successfully in this season.

Our educational programs successfully promote youth in STEM in various regions in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland.

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