The exploration of the Challenge theme and the development of a research project is a critical part of the overall FLL experience.

FLL is not just about building and competing with robots. FIRST encourages well-rounded teams because any successful engineering project requires a wide variety of skills. Through the project research, teams learn more about the science behind the Challenge theme and better understand the work of professionals in that field. Teams will encounter challenges similar to those faced by scientists and engineers as they identify a problem and develop an innovative solution. Exposure to these fields of science and related professions open kids' eyes to future career choices where they can make a positive difference to society.

Note: In order to be eligible for project awards at qualifying and championship tournaments, your presentation must explain how you completed all three parts of the project: identify a problem, create a solution, share

Consult the Project Rubric in the FIRST LEGO League Coaches' Handbook for more information. The total length of your project presentation should be no more than five minutes, including any set-up time.

View the Project .pdf file or download it from the FIRST site.

The Project

Weather is the condition of the atmosphere measured in short lengths of time (hours and days). Climate, however, is the average weather over decades and centuries in a specific location. We can look out our window and see how weather changes every day, but we need data that has been tracked over hundreds of years to understand how the climate may be changing.

Climate tracking is important to communities around the world because the information is used to plan, predict, and make decisions on activities like planting crops or hunting and fishing. People also use data to anticipate the impacts of climate on the economy, food and water availability, tourism, disease control, and many environmental issues.

Why is climate important to us? By gaining a greater understanding of the Earth’s complex climate systems, we will be able to work together now and in the future to develop the innovative solutions that will benefit us all and continue to improve the world in which we live.

Can FLL teams make the necessary Climate Connections?

1.  Research how climate affects your own community. Identify a problem caused by climate in your area, analyze climate data about the problem, and discover what your community is doing about it. Find another community somewhere in the world with the same issue and identify any solutions they are working on.

Discuss the various ways climate impacts your community and your lives. Look at climate data available for your area as it relates to your climate problem. Consider talking with experts who work in a climate-related profession every day, such as climatologists, farmers, foresters, and community leaders. Then find another community in a different geographical area that is experiencing a similar problem. Consult the FLL Topic Guide for additional project resources.

2.  Create an innovative solution based on the information you gathered. See if others, on a local or even global level, could use your innovation to solve this climate related problem or improve on an existing solution.

Consider all the potential solutions to your problem and how great an impact you can have. Talk with experts to see what ideas are already being developed or used. Build your climate connections by creating an innovative solution for your chosen climate problem that could be applied in both communities and adopted by even more communities who face a similar issue.

3.  Share your research and solution. Once you have researched and developed your idea, get out there and share it! Take what you have learned to build awareness of the problem and promote your solution, highlighting your research. Use this project to see just how great an impact you can have on your community and your world!

These resources are intended to help you with your FLL project. 

Have questions about the Project? Email fllprojects@usfirst.org for clarifications and help!

If you choose to refer to them, the following guides and activities are resources readily available to help you complete your project. Your team will enjoy finding many other resources on its own, so you can consider these a starting point to help get your team going.

Glossary of Common Terms for Climate Connections (pdf)

Project How-To Guide (pdf)

The exploration of the Challenge Project is critical to the overall FLL experience. FLL is not just about building and competing with robots. FIRST encourages well-rounded teams. This document will help your team break the project down into smaller, more manageable parts to get started.

Talking with Experts – Preparation Ideas and Sample Interview Questions (pdf)

Talking with experts who work in the field of the Challenge theme is a great way for your FLL team to learn more about the topic, find out current data, discover potential problems, and learn what is being done about those problems. This guide will help you get started.

Challenge-Related Activities & Information

These pages will provide your team with additional information and activities that relate to Climate Connections. Use them to supplement and/or jump-start your project research.

Print individual activities and info sheets by selecting from the list of pdf's below:

• Levee building activity 
• Glacier melting activity
• Carbon Sequestration
• Ice cores and Ice Buoys
• Atmospheric CO2 levels activity

We have also collected a number of activities and lesson plans available online this year.

• Resources for teachers

Web Resources

There are an infinite number of web resources available to teams. Rather than attempt to provide them all, we have selected some and have provided search terms you might use to find sites of your own. The following links are intended to help you get started. We highly recommend searching for web sites, books, magazines, and other sources of information that apply directly to your project topic. Successful teams will gather information from a wide variety of sources. Don't forget to visit your public library!

Fun & Interactive Sites

Climate change game from the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/

Earth Day Footprint Quiz - an interesting activity for kids to try on their global footprint
http://www.earthday.net/Footprintfaq

EPA Global Warming Kids Site: Focuses on science and impacts of global warming or climate change and on actions that help address global warming
http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index.html

General information about climate and weather
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/climate.htm

Climate Change Club Web site from the conservation corps of Newfoundland and Labrador
http://www.conservationcorps.nf.ca/ccc/index.html

Game from IBM and TryScience/NY Hall of Science
http://www.powerupthegame.org/

A site created by WGBH about green living and sustainability
http://www.meetthegreens.org/

An article about how making decisions that reduce your carbon footprint is a great way for kids to get involved in reducing the impacts of climate change
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/specials/articles/1,28285,1613313,00.html

Search terms: climate plus anything from the glossary of terms, plus carbon footprint, data, game, kids

Climate Change Skepticism

List of climate change skeptics
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Climate_change_skeptics

Article about a recent conference
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/01/what-if-you-held-a-conference-and-no-real-scientists-came/

A site encouraging debate and discussion about climate
http://www.demanddebate.com/

This link provides an interesting insight into Climate Cycles. Search this site for other interesting articles on the same topic
http://www.heartland.org/policybot/results.html?articleid=22892

An article which discusses the formation of Arctic ice
http://www.openmarket.org/2008/09/25/more-thicker-and-earlier-arctic-ice

Economist Bjorn Lomborg talks about climate issues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtbn9zBfJSs

Videos discussing views on climate change
http://www.globalwarming.org/node/2073-

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/environment/global-warming-environment/way-forward-climate.html

Arguments against Global Warming
http://www.aproundtable.org/tps30info/globalwarmup.html

http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/feb_2002/global_warming_study.htm

http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba230.html

http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/gccourse/model/co2/seedsci.html

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3061015&page=1

Search terms: climate plus skeptics, global warming, climate change

Scientists & Their Research

Byrd Polar Research Center - studies of various ice core drilling expeditions around the world
http://bprc.osu.edu/Icecore/front-page.html

Notes from the field – a polar scientist talks about a research mission he participated in
http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/40/07/notes/

Julie Brigham-Grette (2008 FLL Game Challenge Consultant) shares information about her career and research
http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/jbg

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab Polar Playground Ice Buoy: The Argos Buoy is shown on deformed seasonal sea ice in the Weddell Sea
http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov/polar/toys.html

A great resource including the science around climate change, the impact, and solutions
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/

Links climate change to energy consumption
http://www.iisd.org/climate/

What is Causing the Dramatic Decline in Honeybee Populations in the U.S. & Elsewhere in Recent Years?
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_5485.cfm

Access to a wealth of Earth science data sets.
http://viz.globe.gov

Search terms: climate plus habitat, data, migration patterns, research, scientists

Climate Data, Governments, & Policy

Find climate data
http://www.worldclimate.com/
http://outflux.net/weather/noaa/
http://www.BestPlaces.net/climate/

Learn more about the concepts of latitude and longitude and find locations around the world
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/latitudelongitude.htm

Climate data from around the U.S.
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/ushcn/ushcn.html

Site from Environment Canada includes a report on the status of emissions and plans to curb them
http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=FD9B0E51-1

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the Nobel winning, international collaboration that has objectively studied and reported on all aspects of climate change.
http://www.ipcc.ch/

The NASA Earth Observatory includes data, images, experiments, missions, and much more.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

EPA’s Climate Change Page: This is a wide-ranging overview of climate change, from science to policy.
http://epa.gov/climatechange/index.html

Search terms: climate plus policy, data, government, collaboration