CNF - Junior FIRST LEGO® League

CNF Junior FIRST LEGO^® League
Jr. FIRST LEGO League Logo

The Junior FIRST LEGO® League (Jr.FLL) is geared towards kids ages 6-9 and is a spin-off of the FIRST LEGO League (FLL). Each year, the FIRST organization (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) releases a science themed challenge for the teams to work on. In this league for the younger kids, the kids form teams that work on a LEGO building challenge based on this science theme. Teams are formed by teachers, coaches, parents, or other mentors who want to encourage kids in science and technology, with the fun of building with LEGOs. Teams consist of up to 6 kids, who meet with their mentor to research the topic for that season, and build a model based on the specific building challenge given. The kids can be classmates, friends, siblings, neighbors, 4-H clubs, etc. Any group can form a team to participate! The season culminates with the high energy music thumping Expo, where the teams gather to present their results to the public and to friendly reviewers and everyone receives a prize for their work.

This year the theme is:

From the Jr.FLL web site:

"Can Jr.FLL teams transform the way we look at transportation? The key to the 2009 “Smart Move” Challenge is accessing people, places, goods and services in the safest, most efficient way possible. In this journey, teams will consider many modes of transportation beyond their daily routine and streamline their options by making smart moves!"

Team registration is now open! The Jr.FLL challenge will be released on September 3rd!

To form a Jr.FLL team you need to:

Find up to 6 kids, ages 6 - 9.
Find someone to coach or mentor the team. This can be anyone who will guide the team on their exploration of the Jr.FLL challenge. Curiosity is the only requirement! Technical knowledge is not needed!
Register your team with the FIRST organization. This is done on the FIRST web site at www.usfirst.org/community/jfll/content.aspx?id=13192 and costs $25.
New teams will need to purchase the required LEGO^® kit which costs about $108 . Information on this kit is available from the Jr.FLL web site.
Register for our Jr.FLL Expo being held on January 30th from 1 - 3:30 PM. This registration is separate from the FIRST registration and is very important to make sure we know who is coming to our event.The deadline for registration is January 8th.

The CNF Jr.FLL expo is being held on January 30th, 2010 in the Duffield Hall atrium on the Cornell University campus, and is open to the public. You need to register your team with us in addition to the FIRST registration. To register your Jr.FLL team, download the Registration Form, fill it out, and email it back to Dan Woodie. If you have any questions feel free to contact Dan Woodie or see the links below:

Junior FIRST LEGO^®

League Web site

What is the Jr.FLL?

CNF FLL Web page (for kids ages 9-14)

General Information about FIRST

FIRST is a nonprofit organization that has developed the FLL and Jr.FLL challenges for other organizations (like Cornell University) to run. The Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF) at Cornell University operates independently from the FIRST organization, but runs the Expo following the framework developed by FIRST. More information about the FIRST organization and the competitions they organize at the elementary, middle, and high school levels can be found at their web site.

FIRST Web Site

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ECS-0335765. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility (CNF)
250 Duffield Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-2700
Voice: 607-255-2329, Fax: 607-255-8601, Email: information@cnf.cornell.edu