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First and Lego Education Partnership Update

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Re: First and Lego Education Partnership Update

#11

Post by teovall »

sitagosan wrote: post #2

I hope they manage the transition well. If it's a lightswitch change it will such for schools to have to pivot and buy new equipment.

LEGO is releasing a new robot kit, Computer Science and AI, later this year. It isn't able to run autonomously so it is essentially incompatible with the way FIRST LEGO League has worked for the last 28 years.

Earlier this year, FIRST and LEGO announced that FIRST LEGO League would split into two editions--Founders Edition and Future Edition. Both editions would run concurrently for the next two seasons. Founders Edition would continue the current autonomous format and teams could use any of the previous robot kits (RCX, NXT, EV3, SPIKE). Future Edition would be a new remote control format using the new robot kit. After the two transition seasons, Founders Edition would be discontinued and Future Edition would become the one and only format and ending the use of all previous robot kits.

Now that LEGO has announced they are ending their relationship with FIRST after next season, a lot of that is up in the air. Next season will proceed as previously announced, with both Founders Edition and Future Edition. After that, both FIRST and LEGO are each continuing on with their own, separate K-8 robotics programs.

Future Edition requires teams have two of the $530 Computer Science and AI kits. One for their robot and one for the interactive mission models. That's a huge investment for a lot of teams.

LEGO has said they will support SPIKE through the next three seasons but they have not said how that will work or if older robot kits (RCX, NTX, EV3) will also be supported.

FIRST has not announced anything about how their program will work after next season.

Re: First and Lego Education Partnership Update

#12

Post by mcphage »

teovall wrote: post #9
tedivm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Lego Mindstorm robotics kit that powered the whole thing was discontinued in 2022. Since they're no longer making the robotics kits they have nothing to donate to the competition (or run the competition on).

The LEGO Education version of MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor, SPIKE Prime, is still available and a new robot kit, Computer Science and AI, is being released this year. After next season, LEGO will be continuing on with their own K-8 robotics program (as will FIRST).

> The LEGO Education version of MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor, SPIKE Prime, is still available

Well, the Spike line is being discontinued also: https://education.lego.com/en-us/spike-update-2026/

But you’re right in that they’ll have another new line—“Lego Education Computer Science & AI”, which is different in a way I don’t really understand and doesn’t fill me with a ton of confidence.

Re: First and Lego Education Partnership Update

#13

Post by MrDarcy »

syntaxing wrote: post #7
benwen wrote: post #5

Maybe this: https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2026-03-12/dean-kamen-resigns-f...

What a bummer. FIRST robotics was a big part of why I’m an engineer today.

I was a mentor for an all girls high school FIRST team and I have to say, the way they were treated at competition by other teams and the way the organization handled that sexual objectification of them at competition leads me to a “that checks out” conclusion of Kamen and Epstein.

Culture propagates from the top.

Re: First and Lego Education Partnership Update

#14

Post by liamkinne »

It feels like LEGO for a while have been dumbing-down their education products.

I saw it with computer science education as a whole during my schooling. Instead of focusing on fundamentals there was more and more layers of abstraction added, lying to you about what you were actually learning.

There is also another competitive event that will be affected by this: RoboCup Junior.

Re: First and Lego Education Partnership Update

#17

Post by ragebol »

tedivm wrote: post #8
theyCallMeSwift wrote: post #3

Anyone have thoughts or insights about why Lego is ending the partnership with FIRST? Thirty years is a long enough track record that it doesn't seem like an overnight decision...

The Lego Mindstorm robotics kit that powered the whole thing was discontinued in 2022. Since they're no longer making the robotics kits they have nothing to donate to the competition (or run the competition on).

Which is a shame in itself

Re: First and Lego Education Partnership Update

#18

Post by watwut »

liamkinne wrote: post #14

It feels like LEGO for a while have been dumbing-down their education products. I saw it with computer science education as a whole during my schooling. Instead of focusing on fundamentals there was more and more layers of abstraction added, lying to you about what you were actually learning. There is also another competitive event that will be affected by this: RoboCup Junior.

LEGO are fundamentally toy company. You cant really compare it to a school.

Re: First and Lego Education Partnership Update

#19

Post by FinnKuhn »

liamkinne wrote: post #14

It feels like LEGO for a while have been dumbing-down their education products. I saw it with computer science education as a whole during my schooling. Instead of focusing on fundamentals there was more and more layers of abstraction added, lying to you about what you were actually learning. There is also another competitive event that will be affected by this: RoboCup Junior.

This competition was my first experience with programming, but from what I can see RoboCup Junior is still thriving - just with different products controlling the robots now.

Re: First and Lego Education Partnership Update

#20

Post by awa »

Personally, the Lego stuff was unreliable and a lot of time was spent by kids in making sure the robot worked across different conditions and there was a lot of pressure on them on ideal placement etc. Again, great things to learn for kids but very frustrating as this is the first foray for elementary kids into programming/robotics.

FTC in comparison has been way more fulfilling for my children and I am hoping the next version of FLL is a lighter version of something similar.

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