BEDFORD—While most kids these coming weeks grow excited about the start of a new school year, a select few of Lawrence County’s 4-H students are excited for an entirely different reason—the kick-off of the 2025 FIRST LEGO League Challenge and Explore seasons.
FIRST LEGO League and Explore (also known as FLLC (ages 9-14) and FLLE (Ages 5-8)) are robotics competitions in which teams of up to ten students build LEGO robots that compete and make theme and community-based projects that are presented to judges.
Lawrence County 4-H youth development club Superior STEAM, which hosts a range of STEAM-related activities and challenges (STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics), hosts 5 FLLC teams and 3 FLLE teams from August to December, or until April, depending how far each team succeeds in their competitions. For Superior STEAM, however, competing and making it to the world competition in Houston, Texas, is surprisingly not their goal. The club has a much higher priority of making sure each student is learning, having fun, and enjoying the competitions.
This year, FIRST (the non-profit that runs these competitions) is launching the 2025-2026 FLL seasons on August 6th. The theme of all FIRST robotics seasons this year revolves around the ocean and solving issues in the deep sea. For FLL specifically, the season is named “Submerged.” Beyond navigating a field of challenges with an autonomous robot that students must build and program, they will also have to pick and solve an issue involving the ocean, giving their creative solutions. Once at competitions, teams will be judged on their project, which they must present, their display of gracious professionalism, how they work together to solve issues, and how they perform. All judging takes place with a group of volunteer judges, given that FIRST Indiana Robotics is very community-based.
Students and parents interested in FIRST LEGO League can join Superior STEAM on August 6th from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. for an open kick-off party. Ages 6-14 are welcome, and there will be a set of activities ranging from watching release videos to jumping into creating robot designs and project solutions. Tours of the club will also be provided. The 4-H club welcomes students up to age 18 and is entirely free.
For more information, parents can visit the club’s Facebook by searching Superior STEAM or their website to fill out a registration form.
By Emily-Corryn Chase.
