Team Quickstart Guide
FLL Challenge General Costs
First year costs include a LEGO Education SPIKE Prime kit, older EV3 or LEGO Mindstorm kits can also be purchased on eBay to reduce cost
Engineering notebooks are optional and can easily be created in a regular notebook
Many grants are available to teams through the FIRST website
After the first year, FLL Challenge cost is roughly $350 per season
Other costs to consider include t-shirts, snacks, and travel (should be minimal)
Time Commitment
Recommend a minimum of 2 hours per week from August until competition, many teams add practices the week or two prior to competition
Not all students need to be at every practice - breaking the group into sub-teams can help efficiency and work around scheduling conflicts
Local competition will be a half day event, typically on a Saturday from 8 am - 1 pm
State competition is a full weekend day in January at Iowa State University
Mentors
Every team is required to have at least 2 coaches, no engineering or STEM experience required
Find experts to help mentor or with research project by emailing community members, businesses, field “experts”, local HS student, etc
This can also be a good source for sponsorship to help offset costs
Additional Resources
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