FIRST^® LEGO^® League is a collaboration between the LEGO® Company and FIRST (an acronym that stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a non-profit organization founded by Dean Kamen that is committed to creating robotic competition programs that will excite and inspire children from Kindergarten through high school to excel in math and science.

FLL is a multi-disciplinary program that combines engineering, computer programming, problem-solving, researching, presenting and teamwork into an intense 8 week period.  Teams of 3 to 10 children, ages 9 – 14, work to build and program a robot to complete a number of tasks on a competition table in a 2.5 minute robot round.  Teams compete in a sports-like environment where spectators cheer their successes.  Teams also meet with Robot Design Judges, who evaluate their robot design, programming and their problem-solving strategies; Project Judges, who look at their research project, solution and outreach; and Core Values Judges, who evaluate how well the group functioned as a team and incorporated the values of FIRST.

Each new challenge is announced in September.  The 2011 challenge theme is Food Factor, where teams will explore food safety. Ohio Regional Qualifying Events will be held from November through December in Ohio and District Qualifying Tournaments will be held in January. The FLL Ohio State Championship will be held on February 2012 at the Ervin J. Nutter Center in Dayton, OH.

FLL Toledo Tournament
FLL Canton Country Day School Regional
Sinclair Community College Regional