Information about the FLL evaluation system On this page FLL Champion Individual Evaluations Special Awards Evaluation at FLL Tournaments FIRST® LEGO® League is a global educational program. Participating children are juged by the same evaluation criteria regardless of the country in which they compete. In all FLL competitions 6 trophies will be awarded - these represent the values and philosphy of the global competition. On the day of the competition teams are judged in several categories. Judges will evaluate the individual categories Robot Design, Research and Teamwork with reference to the FLL evaluation sheets (see downloads below indidvidual evaluation section). In addition, points can be achieved in the Robot Game, referees take a look over the field and if the teams comply with the rules. On the tournament day there will be both awarded the winners of the individual categories and an overall winner of the competition - the FLL Champion. In addition to the awards, each team member receives an FLL Certification as a sign of appreciation for their achievements and performances during the tournament and preparations time.
The FLL Champion and winning team will be the team with the best score in the overall evaulation of all individual categories. The winning team serves as a role model for the FLL program. FIRST® LEGO® League is not only about building a robot and competing with others. In the beginning there is of course the robot but much more important is to work in a team and find solutions together. The FLL Champion is the highly renowned award honouring the four core elements of FLL - Robot Design, Research Project and Teamwork as well as the Robot Game. For the evaluation of the Champion only the best match from the three preliminary rounds counts. A team does not necessarily have to be qualified for the final rounds of the Robot Game to become FLL Champion. During the preparation the FLL Teams concentrate on two main topics: the Robot and the Research Project. At an FLL Tournament the teams will be evaluated in further categories - the team and its interactions with others will be considered as well.
The best teams of each category will receive an award at the award ceremony at the end of a tournament day. If the design of the robot is innovative, robust and related to the program it has highest chances to get the Design Award. The price honours the robot fulfilling the criteria below best: Innovative Design: The team developed a special strategy or a creative design which helps to fulfill the missions in a innovative way. Robust Design: Here is honoured that the team was able to construct a solid, reliable and constant robot. Programming: This criterion contains not only comprehension and correct adaption of programming principles, but also a creative and efficient programming. The judges evaluate the teams on the basis of the FLL Evaluation Sheet "Robot Design".FLL 2016 Evaluation Sheet Robot Design Each team is running 3 preliminary rounds in FLL Robot Game. Within each match the team has the chance to collect as many points as possible. Each match is independent from other rounds – only the match with the highest score counts.
The team with the highest score will get 50 evaluation points automatically. The evaluation points of the other teams will be calculated by setting their score in proportion to the highest score reached. The evaluation points calculated go directly into the evaluation of the FLL Champion. The best teams will go on to quarter or semi final. In quarter and semifinal there is only one round. The reached points will be counted and a ranking will be compiled from that. The best two teams from semi final qualify for the Robot Game final. In the Robot Game final two rounds are carried out. The reached points from both rounds will be summed up and the winner of the Robot Game is made up from this result: the team with the higher total result will win the award “Best Robot Game”. The evaluation of the Robot Game will be recorded on paper or electronically on a tablet application. As a sample you can take a look into the paper version of the referee sheet from the last season: FLL Evaluation Sheet 2016: Robot Game.
On the tournament day every team is given the possibility to present their research results to a selected jury. For the presentation there are various possibilities e.g. parody, formal presentation or demonstration. The jury members want to make sure that more than one team member has worked on the research project. The jury pays also attention whether the team understood and shows all aspects of the problem. whether the team analyses the effects, despite of not having solved the problem. whether the team is working out a solution including robot technology. whether the presentation attracts the attention of the jury. The award is given to the team, which presents a child-suitable ‘high-quality’ research, a profound understanding of the different aspects of their research and The judges evaluate the teams on the basis of the FLL Evaluation Sheet 'Research'.FLL 2016 Evaluation Sheet Research Teamwork is inevitable and an essential condition for every team that wants to succeed at FLL.
The award honours the team with a maximum of enthusiasm, the best sporting spirit, remarkable respect to the own team members and the highest support and assistance towards other teams. This team gave proof of their ability to show:: confidence, motivation and enthusiasm: the ability to find solutions understanding and respect towards others dynamic and interaction within the team The teamwork jury evaluate the teams based on an interview and a team activity. The Team activity is equal on each FLL Regional Tournament in Central Europe. For the FLL Semi Finals there will be another team activity. The judges evaluate the teams on the basis of the FLL Evaluation Sheet "Teamwork".FLL 2016 Evaluation Sheet Teamwork To honour special teams the judges at FLL Tournaments have the chance to give out the Judges Award. The entire jury decides on this award. It could be given to teams that show outstanding endurance and do not give up even if the situations seems unresolvable.
The awarded team is able to cope with very tricky situations by improvising, adjusting, clearing an obstacle out of the way, still performing exceptionally. Or it could be given to newcomer teams taking part in FLL for the first time. Those teams take up more challenges than teams that already experienced a tournament. The team awarded show the ability to compete with experienced teams and achieves good results in the tournament. (only at FLL Final Central Europe) This award goes to the team showing extraordinary creativity and fantasy in constructing the robot. The evaluation is based on visual, as well as on mechanical attributes. The robot is created from LEGO in an imaginative and unique manner and is able to struggle the challenges successfully with an outstanding and creative solution. The robot is catching the attention of the judges, referees and other teams and is in the centre of attention because of its original look. It arouses the interest for robotics and its unlimited opportunities and shows the fun you may have with building, constructing and programming with LEGO Mindstorms.
The awarding is supported by the LEGO company. Benchmark for this award is the communication of the teams within the challenge. Are they discussing their problems and using all aspects of a successful communication to solve them. The award also honours communication between different teams - in which manner are they dealing with problems, searching for a solution and how are they communicating the results. The reason for success is successful communication! The awarding is supported by Motorola Solutions. "To accommodate a number of things" is the motto of the prize supported by National Instruments. Only the interaction of hardware, LEGO robot and software results in an output. The software may change the character and functionality of the robot. The participants are already using the principle of virtual instruments. The integrated approach also includes the interaction within the team and how the project was tackled from the beginning. The software programming of the awarded team distinguishes itself in exceeding quality and performance (stabil and free from defects) as well as user friendliness (simple, intuitively, intelligible handling) and clear and simple structure.
Evaluated is also innovative strength, which means the idea the programming is based on. Despite to that, the possibility to extend and transfer the idea to different useful applications should be taken into account (flexibility and integration). The criteria of SAP-Programming should be transferred to the challenge. The award for the best programming is supported by the software company SAP. At the FLL Finale Central Europe there is the additional category "Live Challenge" in addition to the regular FLL evaluation categories. With the help of an unknown robot, the teams try to solve as many as three of the defined tasks with different difficulty levels within 20 minutes. To accomplish the tasks the robot has to be programmed by the team and tools have to be built out of provided LEGO elements. The team which has been able to solve most of the tasks in a very short time, will receive the award "Best Live Challenge". The "Live Challenge" is part of the "Teamwork" evaluation and is rated as the Teamwork activity.