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Welcome 

2025-2026 UNEARTHED Season

NorCal FIRST LEGO League Challenge �Coach Townhall

Copyright © 2025 Playing At Learning. This document may not be duplicated and/or distributed,electronically or otherwise, without explicit permission. All trademarks, copyrights and service marks are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.

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2025/2026 Overall Season Overview https://info.firstinspires.org/first-age

2025/2026 Logos https://info.firstinspires.org/free-season-content

AGENDA

• Introduction to Playing At Learning
• Overview of the FIRST LEGO League Challenge Program
• Introduction to NorCal FLL Challenge Season

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Introduction Playing at Learning

• 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 2004
• Volunteer driven
• Mission is to excite, inspire and motivate our NorCal youth into STEM
• Deliver programs - FLL Explore, FLL Challenge and FIRST Tech Challenge
• Plan trainings, workshop, and events such as tournaments
• Provide local support for coaches and mentors
• Recruit and help train tournament officials/volunteers
• Outreach – help to create new teams!
• Staff all work part-time and mostly remote
• Funding is mostly individuals like you
• Events are mostly organized by individuals like you

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Website: www.playingatlearning.org

Youtube channel: playingatlearningorg

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Overview of FIRST LEGO League Challenge program

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What is a Team?

• Any group of kids of the right age can be on a team!
• No specific school or organization is needed
• At least two adult coaches
• 2 to 10 team members, recommend ~6 team members
• Ages 9-14 years old

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Check out FIRST LEGO League Challenge Participation Rules (link on the Challenge Resources page) for all details.

Key Elements of a FLL Challenge Team

• A LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime (or EV3 Robotics kit)
• FLL Challenge Table (or equivalent) – 4’ x 8’ flat plywood with 2x3 side walls
• Access to a computer (laptop) for programming
• Challenge Kit (LEGO elements and rollout mat that are for this year’s “game”)
• Space to meet
• Robot build/programming
• Project (Internet access?)

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Overview of the FIRST LEGO League Challenge program

All four components are required to be eligible for any Required Award

All four areas have equal weighting for Champion’s Award

All four areas are required to be eligible to advance from a Qualifier to a Championship

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All work presented at events must be only the work of the children on the official FIRST team roster

FLL Challenge Components

Robot Game

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• Similar to an obstacle course with 2 ½ minutes to run the course with team’s robot

(@ Qualifier or Spring League Event: 1 practice round, 3 official rounds).

• Best official round score counts
• Typically the game has 3 types of “missions”
• Deliver something
• Collect something
• Cause something to happen
• Referees score the game according to the rules and mission descriptions 
• Score Calculator available https://eventhub.firstinspires.org/scoresheet

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Make sure to regularly check for Challenge updates on the FIRST website

FLL Challenge Components

JUDGING: Innovation Project - Theme Based Project

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Every year a new project theme - UNEARTHED

• Team’s project is to come up with a solution for a problem….

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• Typically 3 components:
• Learn about the topic & identify a problem
• Propose an innovative solution that could improve it
• Share with others & Improve based on feedback
• Teams are encouraged to find expert(s) to interview, share ideas, create a model and get expert feedback
• At a tournament, each team has at most 5 minutes to present their project and solution to a panel of judges, who will then ask the team questions
• It is important that a team follow the Project Prompt:
• identify a problem faced by archaeologists and propose a solution that can help

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FLL Challenge Components

JUDGING: Robot Design

• Team’s share their robot’s mechanical design and coding/mission strategy with a panel of judges. Judges ask the team questions and evaluate them.
• Most teams do not have a presentation but you can.
• If team has a presentation, it must be 5 minutes or less

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FLL Challenge Components

Core Values

Remember: Core values will be demonstrated through everything you do during your tournament.

The judged Core Values Rubric Score is a sum of the GP score from the Robot Game + the “specially marked” (aka Gear) sections of the Robot Design and Project Rubrics.

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Gracious Professionalism® [GP]

is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community.

Judging & Scoring

• Consolidated single, 30 min session with at least 2 Judges (and at most 3 Judges)
• Number based judging evaluation (1-4)
• Areas have equal weighting.
• Verbal feedback to teams during the last few minutes of the Judging session
• Rubrics are returned to coach after the event - through mylumi
• Part of Core Values scoring includes GP from Robot Game which is not disclosed

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GP scoring added to the Core Values judged award, part of the Robot Game scoresheet.

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Judging Rubrics

on the Season Resources page on firstinspires.org

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AWARDS at a Qualifier or Spring League tournament:

Award List / Description on Season Resources page : https://firstinspires.blob.core.windows.net/fll/challenge/2025-26/fll-challenge-unearthed-awards.pdf

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Each event will have the following awards - these are considered the Required Awards:

• Champion’s Award
• Core Values Award
• Innovation Project Award
• Robot Design Award
• Robot Performance Award
• Coach/Mentor Award

�PLUS

• At Qualifier, Announcement of Championship Advancing teams
• Larger Qualifiers will add optional awards

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Joining Google Group

Change the default Google Group settings from ‘Don’t send email updates’ to ‘Notify me at every new message’ (about 1 email per week). NOTE: If you do not do this step, you will NOT get any important updates about tournaments.

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Sign Up Instructions:

• Sign in to Google
• Go to group: https://groups.google.com/group/norcalfll-announce
• Join group
• Click Membership and email settings
• Update Email Delivery Preference to Notify Me for Every New Message.
• Click Save

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Team Administrative Activities

on mylumi.playingatlearning.org site

. Coach 1 & Coach 2 create account

. Update team name (if needed)

. Fill out jotform (Team Info survey) - soon

. Pay tournament registration - soon

. Register into a tournament

. Watch for Bulletin messages

via email but also available in mylumi

. Before/During tournament, access schedule, game scoresheet, scoreboard

. After tournament, access completed judging rubrics & award results

on firstinspires.org site:

. Create account

. Register Team

. Order materials

annual challenge kit, robot kit, extra notebooks

. Invite Coaches/Mentors to team

complete trainings & forms

. Add all team members to FIRST Roster

. Add/Update team name

. Reference official sources of challenge documents

watch for Challenge Updates!

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Coach’s Responsibilities

Register Team for Competitive League (OR Spring League) on mylumi.playingatlearning.org

Follow instructions will be sent out to Google group; in folder at tinyurl.com/norcalfll-systems

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Competitive League: Coaches will select their preferences during “event registration” & must have paid and be in Good Status

Spring League: Registration is first come - first served

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Be Aware of Deadlines (Join the Google Group - all deadlines are announced there)

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NorCal region does NOT use the Event Hub nor the FIRST Event registration system that is listed in your FIRST Dashboard!

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Looking Forward to the Norcal FLL Challenge Season

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Norcal FLL Challenge Leagues - Choose 1 for the season

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Season Timeline

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• midSept Competitive League Qualifier Tournament Registration Opens
• Nov 1/2/8/9/15/16 All Qualifier Tournaments
• Dec - Feb NorCal Championships
• Dec Spring League Event Registration Opens
• Feb - Apr Spring League Events

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Note that we are unlikely to have any events in March due to �FRC District events every weekend in March.

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Competitive League Event Registration

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• Detailed Registration instructions will be sent to the Google Group. You will use mylumi.playingatlearning.org to register teams for your events and collect event registration fees.
• Qualifier registration fee is $375 and is expected to open mid-September. Coach will select their event preferences - once their “team status” in mylumi shows as “Good”
• The system will then randomly order the teams and assign each team to their highest available preference once the preference window closes
• If your team only selects a few events, it could be that you don’t get any of your preferences and have to wait for open registration
• Shortly after preferencing, we will open registration for any remaining slots.
• For any team that did not get a slot during preferencing and has team status as “Good”, either coach can then register

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Spring League Event Registration

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• Events will take place in-person in February- April (depending on venues availability)
• Team must register & be fully paid with FIRST no later than January 14
• Tournament registration fee is $375.
• Updates will be provided on Google Group about registration dates and sites.
• Teams will directly register into an event - we will not use the preferencing system - once their “team status” in mylumi shows as “Good”

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FLL Challenge Tournaments- Competitive League

• 2 tier system in NorCal : Qualifier -> Championship
• There is no state-level or national-level championship
• November 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16: 1^st Level Qualifier Tournaments
• December to February Championship Tournament
• For teams that “advance” based on FIRST published advancement criteria
• All similarly sized tournaments will have same schedule with local “flavor” at beginning and ending of day.

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• All teams must provide a volunteer to help out at their qualifier!
• Team volunteers may NOT be a Judge or Referee

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NorCal region does NOT use the FIRST Event Registration system that might be in your FIRST Dashboard!

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Competitive League Tournament Registration

• Each team’s status is available on https://mylumi.playingatlearning.org
• Submit your
• (1) Team Information Form (jotform) which includes information about team’s adult volunteer
• (2) Payment
• Once info is correct, the team is eligible to register their preferences for which qualifiers that the team can attend
• Don’t FORGET to pay for your registration before preference period ends!

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mylumi common issues

• Both Team Coaches must have accounts in mylumi
• Both Coaches must have completed all of their FIRST requirements including background screening, all consent waivers and youth protection safety training

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• Adult Volunteer may not be one of the 2 Coaches due to FIRST Youth Safety guidelines
• Team coaches are responsible for the team members’ safety during the event and according to the FIRST Youth Safety training, are not allowed to have other roles
• Members, or Mentors missing from Roster (Lead Coach 1 must accept each team member and mentor onto team)
• Mismatch of names between Roster and Jotform - they must match exactly
• If you say there are 4 adults working with the team, then you need to include all 4 adults listed as coaches or mentors.
• If you include that you have any youth mentors, they either need to be on the preprinted part of the roster

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2025 NorCal Resources

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https://tinyurl.com/norcalfll-systems

Important things to remember

• FLL is more than a competition
• going through the process is the goal
• much/most is accomplished before the tournament

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• Kids do the work and make the choices

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• Keep it FUN - Celebrate
• Coopertition® is showing that learning is more important than winning. Teams can help others even as they compete.
• Role of mentors and coaches within the team in FLL
• Mediator/Arbitrator/Skill Development
• Facilitate & Challenge - answer a question with a question
• Keep it FUN
• Celebrate!

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Digital Resources

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Check out https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/fll/challenge/challenge-and-resources �for much more useful information.

FIRST is moving to a new Learning System!

• no more Thinkscape or Bluevolt

More Resources

• FIRST HQ Team Blasts

www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/fll/team-blast-archive

• FIRST Community Blog

community.firstinspires.org/topic/fll

• FLL Challenge: Share and Learn on Facebook

www.facebook.com/groups/FLLShareandLearn

flltutorials.com

primelessons.org

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• Local Website: www.norcalfllc.org

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• OFFICIAL SOURCE FOR CHALLENGE DOCUMENTS

www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/fll/challenge/challenge-and-resources

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Here’s how you can help!

• Coaching or Mentoring a team.
• If your company does volunteer matching you can track all your volunteer hours (Dollars for Doers) to Playing At Learning (not FIRST)
• If Playing At Learning is not on your company directory we can help you add us
• Help find tournament Locations - need Organizers (and Sites)
• Help Recruit Volunteers by hosting a Lunch & Learn at your company
• Reminder team-affiliated volunteers may not be a Judge or Referee at ANY event this season!

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Questions?

Right now: Type in Question box or Raise Hand

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Your feedback and questions are valuable so reach out to� fll-challenge@playingatlearning.org

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Major Season Costs

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