About the Program
The W.A.F.F.L.E.S. FIRST LEGO League Explore (formerly FIRST LEGO League Jr.) program for ages 6-10 was founded in 2008. Since then, we have expanded the program to include between 2 and 4 teams running each fall, and additional teams running through our summer camps.
In FIRST® LEGO® League Explore, teams of up to 6 kids learn about a different real-world problem each season and develop an innovative solution for it. They work together to build, motorize, and code a creative LEGO model of their solution. Teams also make a Show Me poster to describe their team, what they learned, and what their solution is. At the end of the season, teams come together to present their projects to a friendly set of reviewers at our W.A.F.F.L.E.S. FIRST® LEGO® League Explore Festival. The Kingston Festival is hosted three times a year to help as many teams as possible participate.
Contact info@wafflesrobotics.com for more information about joining one of our FIRST® LEGO® League Explore Teams!
Program Benefits
- Easy and fun, with no experience required!
- Hands-on introduction to…
- Strong building techniques
- Basic programming
- Engineering concepts like the engineering notebook
- Helps kids develop skills in…
- Creativity
- Teamwork
- Communication and presentations
- Problem-solving… and more!
Joining our Teams
Cost
The all-inclusive cost per participant for the 2023 season, run in-person, is $350 CAD, $300 for additional children from the same household.
All participants will be working with the Spike Essentials Set. The Spike Essentials Set is the introductory programming kit from LEGO, and it can be reused year after year. If you wish to purchase one separately, we recommend purchasing from Studica Education or Spectrum Nasco.
W.A.F.F.L.E.S. Community Robotics is not-for-profit organization and is volunteer-run; we do our best to make our programs affordable and accessible to everyone! If cost is an obstacle, contact us at info@wafflesrobotics.com for information on bursaries to see if your family might qualify.
Payments can be made by e-transfer to info@wafflesrobotics.com or by a cheque made payable to W.A.F.F.L.E.S. Community Robotics (please email for the mailing address if you use this method).
Meetings
For 2023, meetings will take place once a week for 12 weeks, possibly more if needed.
We have had success offering completely remote programming to participants across the province and this remains an option for 2023. Please reach out to us if you are interested in joining a remote team!
Meetings are scheduled in our public Google calendar, which is visible at the bottom of the webpage and can be added here.
Parental Involvement
Meeting lessons and activities are lead by our program lead and volunteers from our older robotics programs. Parents are required to attend meetings to help supervise and keep their child focused on the current activity.
Team Communications
All of our programs communicate using a platform called Slack, which is commonly used in workplaces. Parents will receive an invitation to join Slack upon registration so that we can effectively send reminders and communicate about team meetings and events.
