I was a coach the last two years for this and I found the FIRST program to not be productive or enjoyable for the children or the adults. We all joined for the robotics but 75% of your score is not about robotics, fully 50% is about displays and presentations. On top of that, as others have alluded to, the missions rewarded brute force attempts at perfect replays as opposed to problems solving and didn't get into some of the more interesting sensors available. Add to that the upcoming year is focused on inclusion by relying on vibe coding so which is the opposite direction they should be going.
I hope Lego can find a partner more focused on the robotics and not the pageantry and performance.
Anyone have thoughts or insights about why Lego is ending the partnership with FIRST? Thirty years is a long enough track record that it doesn't seem like an overnight decision...
The Lego Mindstorm robotics kit that powered the whole thing was discontinued in 2022. Since they're no longer making the robotics kits they have nothing to donate to the competition (or run the competition on).
The LEGO Education version of MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor, SPIKE Prime, is still available and a new robot kit, Computer Science and AI, is being released this year. After next season, LEGO will be continuing on with their own K-8 robotics program (as will FIRST).
This is so sad to read. Been a judge in this competition for many years, and it's such a wholesome celebration of excitement about technology. I really don't understand why this needed to go.
Personally, the Lego stuff was unreliable and a lot of time was spent by kids in making sure the robot worked across different conditions and there was a lot of pressure on them on ideal placement etc. Again, great things to learn for kids but very frustrating as this is the first foray for elementary kids into programming/robotics.
FTC in comparison has been way more fulfilling for my children and I am hoping the next version of FLL is a lighter version of something similar.
It feels like LEGO for a while have been dumbing-down their education products.
I saw it with computer science education as a whole during my schooling. Instead of focusing on fundamentals there was more and more layers of abstraction added, lying to you about what you were actually learning.
There is also another competitive event that will be affected by this: RoboCup Junior.
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I hope Lego can find a partner more focused on the robotics and not the pageantry and performance.
FTC in comparison has been way more fulfilling for my children and I am hoping the next version of FLL is a lighter version of something similar.
I saw it with computer science education as a whole during my schooling. Instead of focusing on fundamentals there was more and more layers of abstraction added, lying to you about what you were actually learning.
There is also another competitive event that will be affected by this: RoboCup Junior.