FAQs - FIRST^® LEGO^® League Discover

The FIRST® LEGO® League Discover division is designed for a whole class, or larger group, of children. The programme runs over 10 sessions and the Team Meeting Guide outlines the content of each session, with guidance on how to run them.

Each session fits within one lesson, although you may prefer to use two, or even a half a day per session. The programme is flexible and can be adapted to the needs and interests of your children – there’s no right or wrong way to run it! What’s most important is that the children are engaging in playful sessions with plenty of time to free-build, tinker, be creative and share their ideas through discussion and sketches or writing in their Engineering Notebooks.

We have three different registrations available:

• DISCOVER8 - to run with up to 8 children, working in two groups of four children.
• DISCOVER16 – to run with up to 16 children, working in four groups of four children.
• DISCOVER24 – to run with up to 24 children, working in six groups of four children.
• DISCOVER32 – to run with up to 32 children, working in eight groups of four children.

Visit our registration page for the costs of each pack. STEAM parks cost around £169+VAT each through our LEGO® Education distributors OKdo or RS.

The FIRST® LEGO® League Discover division is for a larger number of children, such as a whole class, but with a large enough number of children at an after-school club it should also work! The smallest pack we offer is for 8 children – DISCOVER8 – in four groups.

Absolutely! It is designed for children aged 4-6. Some smaller schools have run this with a mixture of different ages very successfully and have noted how the strengths of the different ages have supported each other to participate in the groups effectively. Similarly, older children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities can also benefit from the programme.

Definitely! We offer ‘top up’ packs with extra bits of kit that you will need to run it across multiple classes. See the registration page for prices.

It’s easy! Go to our registration page and choose a pack for your school or library.

When you register online, you will need to choose which pack you require based on the number of children you want to run the programme with.

You will receive:

• FIRST® LEGO® League Discover Sets – they are themed according to the challenge for the season to ignite interest in the topic. Each group of four children get one Discover Set which consists of a LEGO® DUPLO® model and LEGO® DUPLO® bricks. As well as the Discover model, each set contains Six Bricks (six brightly coloured LEGO® DUPLO® bricks) for each child in the group that allows children to practice different skills, including language and communication, problem-solving and collaboration. These are one of LEGO® Foundation’s tools for introducing learning through play. They form the starter for the sessions through fun, short activities.
• Engineering Notebooks – each child gets an Engineering Notebook to record their ideas and sketches throughout the programme. There is one page to fill in for every two sessions. The Engineering Notebooks can be a good resource at the Celebration Event to showcase the journey of their learning!
• Team Meeting Guide - your comprehensive teacher’s guide to running the FIRST® LEGO® League Discover division with a lesson plan for each session, including handy tips and suggested tasks and questions.
• Discover More sets – one box for each child comprising of two sets of Six Bricks to take home and continue learning with their parents.
• Certificates – for the final Celebration Event! Every child will receive a certificate to celebrate their hard work throughout the programme.

There are also online training resources, such as videos and webinars, and extra guides and support to share best practice and raise questions with other teachers.

Six Bricks are exactly what the name suggests – six brightly coloured LEGO® DUPLO bricks! The Six Bricks allow children to practice different skills, including language and communication, problem solving and collaboration. These are one of LEGO® Foundation’s tools for introducing learning through play. They form the starter for the sessions through fun, short activities. The children all get a set of Six Bricks to use in school and a set to take home to continue the learning.

You will need all of the resources listed above in order to run the sessions, which you will receive when you register.

As well as the Discover Sets that you will receive after registration, you will need to purchase some LEGO® STEAM parks which are used throughout the programme. These are not theme-specific so can be used year after year after year!

The STEAM park set works in conjunction with the programme to allow for children to explore STEM concepts and form the basis for their main project. With more bricks, children can become even more creative and make their builds as inventive as their imagination. These are not theme-specific so can be used year after year after year!

We recommend a minimum of one LEGO® STEAM park between two groups, ideally one LEGO® STEAM park for each group, to ensure the children have access to enough of the specialist bricks that they want to create their imaginative builds.

None at all! The Team Meeting Guide is a detailed guide to running the programme with lesson plans which you can follow as closely or loosely as you wish. There are handy tips included for each session and you can find Six top tips for teachers.

We have lots of online resources available - such as video tutorials, links to further teacher guides and online forums as well as a LEGO® Education STEAM park Teacher Guide and LEGO® Foundation Six Bricks Booklet.

At the end of the programme, all groups participate in a Celebration Event. This is designed to celebrate all the children’s wonderful learning and give them an opportunity to share what they have built and learnt. It could be held in the classroom, in the school hall, a library, or anywhere that has a reasonable amount of room for all the groups to spread out, build, have fun and showcase their work.

For the event, invite parents/carers, friends, members of the local community and maybe even the rest of the school! Display work that has been recorded in Engineering Notebooks or on posters. Give an overview of the types of questions adults can ask the children to help them share their ideas and encourage adults to talk to the children about what they have built and why. Each child receives a certificate to remember their experience of participating in FIRST® LEGO® League Discover and show their friends and family what they have achieved. The Celebration Event should be fun, exciting and feel special – after all, the children have worked hard at developing their STEM skills!

Tips for running a successful Celebration Event can be found on the teacher resources page.

We know how important it is to have a valuable programme that links to the curriculum to make it beneficial and relevant for teachers and students. Therefore, we’ve mapped Discover onto the English, Scottish and (coming soon) Welsh curriculums as well as created a progression of skills document showing how key skills covered in the programme develop across the year groups. These can be found on the teacher resources page.