--- title: "FIRST LEGO League Australia: Coding Help for Teams" description: "FIRST LEGO League in Australia: Explore, Challenge and the new Future Edition, the 2026-2027 BIOGLOW season, and the coding a 2:30 robot game run needs." canonical: https://learn.modernagecoders.com/first-lego-league-australia-coding-help source: src/pages/first-lego-league-australia-coding-help.html --- > FIRST LEGO League in Australia: Explore, Challenge and the new Future Edition, the 2026-2027 BIOGLOW season, and the coding a 2:30 robot game run needs. In short FIRST LEGO League in Australia has three divisions: Explore for ages 6 to 10, Challenge for ages 9 to 16, and Future Edition for ages 8 to 16, new for 2026-2027. The 2026-2027 season is BIOGLOW, on biodiversity. Challenge robots run autonomous 2:30 matches and can be coded in Word Blocks, Icon Blocks or Python, according to FIRST Australia. Where to start ## Three courses for FIRST LEGO League team members Blocks first, then text, with plenty of attention to movement and measurement. [![Coding for Kids course thumbnail](/images/kids-coding.webp) FLL / 01 Coding for kids Loops, conditions and procedures in blocks, the same building blocks as a SPIKE word-block program. Open the syllabus →](/courses/kids-coding-blocks-masterclass)[![Python and AI for Kids course thumbnail](/images/python-kids.webp) FLL / 02 Python and AI for kids For team members ready to try the Python option FIRST Australia lists. Open the syllabus →](/courses/python-ai-kids-masterclass)[![Maths Through Coding course thumbnail](/images/maths-through-coding.webp) FLL / 03 Maths through coding Circumference, ratios and angles used in code, which is exactly what accurate driving needs. Open the syllabus →](/courses/maths-through-coding) Divisions ## Explore, Challenge and the new Future Edition FIRST Australia's program comparison sets out who each division is for and how it runs. These are its figures, read on 7 October 2026. | | Explore | Challenge | Future Edition | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Students | Ages 6 to 10 (Years 1 to 4) | Ages 9 to 16 (Years 4 to 10) | Ages 8 to 16 (Years 3 to 10) | | Team size | Up to 6 students | Up to 10 students | Up to 8 students | | Coaches | At least 1 | At least 2 | At least 2 | | Robot game | No matches; models built and shared | Autonomous matches of 2:30 | Autonomous matches of 2:30 | | Technology | LEGO Education SPIKE Essential | LEGO Education SPIKE Prime | LEGO Education Computer Science and AI kits | | Events | 12 Explore festivals and a National Festival in December, Sydney | 70+ qualifying competitions and national championships in December | Qualifying events to be confirmed; national championship in December, Sydney | | Weekly time, approx. | 1 hour | 2 hours | 2 hours | Challenge, the best-known division, lists 950 or more teams nationally and four national championships in December, in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane. Explore lists 380 or more teams. Future Edition is in its first season in 2026-2027. For every division, FIRST Australia lists Word Blocks, Icon Blocks or Python as coding options, and says teams can be school or community based. Registrations opened on May 25, 2026 and the season kicked off on August 4, 2026, so teams are now in the build-and-practise stretch of the year. Older students can move on to FIRST Tech Challenge, for ages 12 to 18, and FIRST Robotics Competition, for ages 14 to 18, which FIRST Australia describes in the same comparison. Sources: [FIRST Australia, compare programs](https://www.firstaustralia.org/compare-programs); [FIRST Australia, FIRST LEGO League](https://www.firstaustralia.org/first-lego-league). Read 7 October 2026. Registration costs, kit costs and budgets printed there are not repeated here. The season ## BIOGLOW, and what a season asks of a team Each FIRST LEGO League season has a theme. For 2026-2027 it is BIOGLOW, part of the global FIRST CANOPY season, on biodiversity. FIRST Australia describes BIOGLOW as an invitation to explore the variety of life on the planet, from microscopic organisms and glowing fungi to plants, animals and the ecosystems that connect them. Teams investigate real-world challenges, develop solutions, and design and code LEGO robots. To support the theme, Macquarie University's Faculty of Science and Engineering has produced a series of videos with biodiversity and conservation experts, according to FIRST Australia. For Challenge teams, the season has two strands that both need programming thinking: the robot game, where an autonomous robot attempts missions on a shared table, and an innovation project researched and presented by the team. FIRST Australia offers free training modules for coaches, educators and volunteers, covering team management, robot building and programming, and competition preparation. | Stage of the season | Programming task | What good looks like | | --- | --- | --- | | Early weeks | Drive straight and turn accurately | The robot lands within a few millimetres, run after run | | Middle weeks | One mission at a time | Each mission is its own short, named program | | Later weeks | Chain missions into one run | Missions start from known positions, not from where the last one ended | | Before events | Reliability testing | Every program is tested many times and failures are logged | | Judging | Explaining the code | Every team member can describe how the robot decides what to do | Worked lesson ## Motor degrees into millimetres, and why small errors grow Most robot game misses come from distance, not from strategy. The arithmetic below is ours; the wheel sizes are examples, so measure your own. ### One turn of the wheel A wheel moves the robot one circumference per full turn: pi times the diameter. Suppose the wheel is 56 mm across. One turn moves the robot about 175.9 mm. ### Degrees for a distance Motors are usually told how many degrees to turn. For 500 mm: 500 divided by 175.9 is about 2.842 turns, and 2.842 times 360 is about 1,023 degrees. ### The hidden error Tyres squash a little, so the wheel may act like 55 mm, not 56. Then 1,023 degrees moves only about 491.1 mm, almost 9 mm short of the mission. | Planned distance | Degrees programmed | Actual distance | Short by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 250 mm | 512 | 245.5 mm | 4.5 mm | | 500 mm | 1,023 | 491.1 mm | 8.9 mm | | 1,000 mm | 2,046 | 982.1 mm | 17.9 mm | | 2,000 mm | 4,093 | 1,964.3 mm | 35.7 mm | The shortfall is always the same fraction, here 1 part in 56, so it grows in step with distance. Over a single short move it hardly matters; across a two and a half minute run that drives two metres or more, the robot can finish several centimetres from where the program believes it is, and a mission model is missed by a whisker. Two habits fix most of this. First, measure the real distance per turn by driving a known number of degrees and measuring with a ruler, then use that measured value in the program instead of the printed wheel size. Second, give the robot something real to line up against during a run, such as a wall or a line on the table, so each mission starts from a known position and errors cannot carry over. ### The same idea for turns Turning on the spot works the same way, except the distance is part of a circle traced by the wheels. Small differences between the left and right wheels make a robot curve gently, which is why a gyro sensor reading is often used to correct the heading. Students who calculate a turn, test it and adjust from measurements learn more than those who keep nudging numbers by trial and error. ### Why judges care Being able to explain how a program achieves accuracy is part of describing a robot's design. A team member who can say "we measured 172.8 mm per turn and line up on the wall before mission three" shows real understanding. The same measuring habit carries into secondary maths and science, where calibrating an instrument before trusting it is standard practice. How we help ## Making team members stronger programmers FIRST LEGO League is a team's own season. Our role is to teach programming and debugging so the team's robot does what the team intends. Lessons cover movement and measurement, sensors such as colour and gyro, splitting a run into named missions, starting each mission from a known position, and testing until a result is repeatable. Students work on small exercises and then explain how they would apply the idea to their own robot. For students ready for text code, we introduce Python gently, since FIRST Australia lists it alongside Word Blocks and Icon Blocks. The ideas transfer directly; only the notation changes. We do not write a team's robot game programs, design its robot or prepare its innovation project. Coaches and team members do that work, and judges expect it. We do not promise an award, a place at a national championship or any result. We teach the habits that make a robot reliable, which is what a season rewards. | Weeks | Focus | Sign of progress | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 and 2 | Measuring distance per turn | Drives 500 mm within a few millimetres, three times running | | 3 and 4 | Accurate turns with a gyro | Turns 90 degrees and recovers if nudged | | 5 and 6 | Missions as named programs | Can run any mission on its own from a known start | | 7 and 8 | Lining up on the table | Uses a wall or line to reset position between missions | | 9 and 10 | Testing and explaining | Keeps a run log and explains each design choice | Growing as a robot programmer ## Four rungs from Explore to Challenge and beyond Divisions follow age, but skill grows in its own order. | Around | Rung | The sign it is secure | | --- | --- | --- | | Years 1 to 4 | 1. Makes a model move | Builds and codes a moving model in Explore | | Years 4 to 6 | 2. Moves accurately | Drives and turns by measured amounts | | Years 6 to 8 | 3. Plans a run | Splits a run into missions with known start points | | Years 8 to 10 | 4. Engineers reliability | Tests, logs and fixes until runs repeat | ### When the robot misses Measure before changing code. Was it short, long, or turned? Each points to a different fix. Run the same program five times. One miss is noise; five misses the same way is a pattern you can fix. ### Related reading For another robotics competition, see [RoboCup Junior Australia coding help](/robocup-junior-australia-coding-help). The [competitions calendar](/australian-coding-maths-and-ai-competitions-calendar) lists coding and maths contests through the year. The catalogue ## Nine courses for FIRST LEGO League students Grouped from first blocks to text code and reasoning. Each card opens its syllabus. I ### First coding Explore and early Challenge FLL / FC / 01 #### Coding for kids Blocks, loops and procedures. [Open the syllabus](/courses/kids-coding-blocks-masterclass) FLL / FC / 02 #### Scratch for kids Programs you can watch run. [Open the syllabus](/courses/scratch-programming-complete-course) FLL / FC / 03 #### Computational thinking Breaking a mission into steps. [Open the syllabus](/courses/problem-solving-and-computational-thinking-for-kids)II ### Measurement and maths Accurate robots FLL / MM / 01 #### Maths through coding Circumference, ratio and angle in code. [Open the syllabus](/courses/maths-through-coding) FLL / MM / 02 #### Mental maths for kids Quick estimates before testing. [Open the syllabus](/courses/mental-maths-mastery-kids) FLL / MM / 03 #### Middle years maths Geometry behind turning and driving. [Open the syllabus](/courses/comprehensive-middle-school-mathematics-mastery)III ### Text code Python and beyond FLL / TX / 01 #### Python and AI for kids A first text language. [Open the syllabus](/courses/python-ai-kids-masterclass) FLL / TX / 02 #### Python for teens Structure for longer programs. [Open the syllabus](/courses/python-complete-masterclass-teens) FLL / TX / 03 #### Problem solving for teens Logic for harder challenges. [Open the syllabus](/courses/problem-solving-dsa-masterclass-teens) How lessons run ## Live online lessons that fit around team meetings Teachers work from India, behind Australian clocks: Melbourne is four and a half hours ahead of India time in winter and five and a half in summer, and Perth two and a half all year. An Australian after-school lesson therefore runs in the Indian afternoon, so it can sit alongside a team's weekly meeting. Weekday afternoon A programming idea learned and practised. Weekend session Applying the idea to the student's own robot. Before a tournament Reliability testing and explaining the code. ### Measure, then code Students use real measurements instead of guessed numbers. ### The team's robot We teach and question; the team builds and programs. ### Blocks or Python Whichever the team uses, with a path to the other. ### Groups of fifteen to twenty Students at a similar level sharing methods. ### One-to-one option For the team member leading the programming. ### No result promised Referees and judges decide; we build the skills. Student work ## Projects our students made themselves Built for the joy of it, outside any season. More in the [student labs](/student-labs). ![NutriLife AI nutrition coach project screenshot](/images/projects/nutrilife.webp) AI and ML #### NutriLife An AI nutrition coach that reads what you eat and works you toward a target. by Bhavya · [Open it](https://nutrilife-bhavya.lovable.app) ![Misti AI chatbot for maths and coding screenshot](/images/projects/misti.webp) AI and ML #### Misti A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student. by Harshit · [Open it](https://misti.modernagecoders.com) ![GuardianX AI internet safety assistant screenshot](/images/projects/guardianx.webp) AI and ML #### GuardianX An assistant that helps a young person recognise unsafe situations online. by Vivaan · [Open it](https://guardianx-cybersaver.lovable.app) ![SkyCast weather forecast application screenshot](/images/projects/skycast.webp) Web app #### SkyCast A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location. by Krish Fees ## Fees Lessons are billed each month in US dollars at our international rate, with no joining fee and no contract. Team registration and kits are bought separately from FIRST Australia and its suppliers, not through us. Free first class USD 0 no card required - A first lesson that costs nothing - A look at how the student programs now - No card details Book it Group batch USD 100 a month, billed in US dollars - Fifteen to twenty students at one level - One teacher for the whole term - Movement and sensor exercises done together - A certificate on finishing Start here One to one USD 150 a month, billed in US dollars - A teacher for a single student - Time on that student's own team programs - Times arranged around team meetings Enquire What families say ## Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews Reviews taken word for word from our Google listing. ★★★★★ "The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content." Ria Mukherjee Parent ★★★★★ "Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease." Samriddha Mondal Student ★★★★★ "One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development." Vansh Agarwal Student ★★★★★ "My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative." Sonam Oswal Parent of Dhairya ★★★★★ "Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation." Sonu Goyal Parent ★★★★★ "I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding." Ritu Kedia Parent Questions about FIRST LEGO League ## What families and coaches ask ### What is FIRST LEGO League? A global robotics program in which teams research a themed problem and design, build and code LEGO robots. In Australia it is run by FIRST Australia in three divisions: Explore, Challenge and Future Edition. ### Which division suits my child? Explore is for ages 6 to 10 (Years 1 to 4), Challenge for ages 9 to 16 (Years 4 to 10) and Future Edition for ages 8 to 16 (Years 3 to 10), according to FIRST Australia. ### What is the 2026-2027 season theme? BIOGLOW, part of the global FIRST CANOPY season, which explores biodiversity from glowing fungi to whole ecosystems. ### How long is a robot game match? Challenge and Future Edition matches run for 2:30 and the robot is autonomous. Explore has no matches; teams build and share models instead. ### What coding languages can teams use? FIRST Australia lists Word Blocks, Icon Blocks or Python for its FIRST LEGO League divisions. ### What is wheel circumference, and why does it matter? The distance around a wheel, equal to pi times its diameter. It is how far a robot travels in one full wheel turn, so it turns motor degrees into millimetres. ### How many students are in a team? Up to 6 in Explore, up to 10 in Challenge and up to 8 in Future Edition, with at least one coach for Explore and two for the others. ### Will you program our robot? No. We teach team members programming, measurement and debugging so the team can program its own robot and explain it to judges. ### When are the national championships? FIRST Australia lists Challenge national championships in December in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane, and a Future Edition championship in December in Sydney. ### Can lessons start mid-season? Yes. Many students join once a robot exists and the team discovers its runs are not repeatable, which is exactly what the lessons address. Related pages ## More for Australian students Robotics, competitions and next steps in coding. ### [RoboCup Junior Australia](/robocup-junior-australia-coding-help) Dance, rescue and soccer robots. ### [Competitions calendar](/australian-coding-maths-and-ai-competitions-calendar) Every contest by month. ### [After Scratch, Python](/after-scratch-next-step-python-australia) Moving from blocks to text. ### [Coding for Year 7](/coding-for-year-7-australia) The first year of secondary coding. ### [Coding classes in Australia](/coding-classes-in-australia) Every state and every age. ### [Coding classes for kids](/online-coding-classes-for-kids-australia) What an online class looks like. Start here ## Book a free robot programming class Tell us the division, the year level and how the team codes now. The free class works through accurate driving with a teacher and ends with a clear next step. Would you rather read first? All course outlines sit on the [course atlas](/course-atlas), and [how we teach](/how-we-teach) explains our lessons. [WhatsApp us](https://wa.me/919123366161?text=Hello%20Modern%20Age%20Coders%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20free%20class%20about%20programming%20for%20a%20FIRST%20LEGO%20League%20team%20in%20Australia.) · [+91 91233 66161](tel:+919123366161) · [connect@modernagecoders.com](mailto:connect@modernagecoders.com) WhatsApp tends to be the fastest way to reach us. The number is Indian because we work from India; we have no Australian office. ### Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo A priority demo is a full class of about 45 to 60 minutes. After the class the mentor sends a written skill report and a personal learning roadmap on WhatsApp. If you enrol, the demo fee is adjusted against your first month's fee. Share your demo Order ID with us on WhatsApp and we take it off. [Book a priority demo](/book-demo) ## Keep exploring Modern Age Coders ### Related courses and guides - [FIRST LEGO League UK Coding Help](/first-lego-league-uk-coding-help) - [First Competitions for Primary School Children UK](/first-competitions-for-primary-school-children-uk) - [Software Development Company for Business](/for-business) - [FAQ: Online Coding and Maths Classes, Demos and Fees](/faq) - [Free Coding Classes for Kids in Australia: What You Get](/free-coding-classes-for-kids-australia-what-you-get) - [Edexcel GCSE Computer Science 1CP2 Help](/edexcel-gcse-computer-science-1cp2-help) - [RoboCup Junior Australia Coding Help: Challenges Explained](/robocup-junior-australia-coding-help) - [MVP Development Company for Startups](/mvp-development-company) - [Perse Coding Team Challenge Preparation](/perse-coding-team-challenge-preparation) ### Free resources - [Python Tutorial for Beginners: Complete Guide](/resources/python) - [Project: Build an Interactive Portfolio Website](/resources/javascript/project-interactive-portfolio) - [Your First Python Program](/resources/python/your-first-python-program) - [Exception Handling in Python](/resources/python/exception-handling) ### From the blog - [The IB Computer Science IA No Longer Needs a Client](/blog/ib-computer-science-ia-client-rule-2027) - [AP CSP vs AP CSA: Which Is Harder, and Which to Take First](/blog/ap-csp-vs-ap-csa-which-to-take-first) - [How Schools and Parents Can Prepare Children for Future Tech Careers](/blog/how-schools-parents-prepare-children-future-tech-careers) ### Start here - [How Modern Age Coders teaches, small batches and real projects](/how-we-teach) - [What Modern Age Coders families say](/love) Free class[Priority demo](/book-demo)[Call us](tel:+919123366161) --- *Canonical: https://learn.modernagecoders.com/first-lego-league-australia-coding-help*