FIRST LEGO League Explore 2026
This week we held two FIRST® LEGO® League Explore Festivals at the Village Hotel Newcastle, for schools across North Tyneside and Northumberland.
Over fifty teams took part in the STEM programme this year, with over three hundred children attending the two half-day festivals.
What is FIRST LEGO League Explore?
FIRST® LEGO® League Explore is an exciting international Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) programme for six to nine year olds. It is coordinated in the UK by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Education North Tyneside and Northumberland County Council run the North Tyneside and Northumberland event, in partnership with our wonderful sponsors Sage.
FIRST® LEGO® League Explore is part of a wider programme, which also includes FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge, which is designed as the next step up from Explore, for nine to sixteen year olds. Together it makes FIRST® LEGO® League the largest STEM programme in the world!
Each year a theme relevant to the world around them is chosen as a focus for the children’s work. The teams work together for twelve weeks in school researching the topic while learning about the FIRST® LEGO® League Core Values of teamwork. They also construct and program a motorised LEGO® model that demonstrates their learning and their project.
The end of the season festivals are celebration events, at which all the schools taking part come together. Each team presents their work to a team of adult reviewers as a ‘Show Me’ poster board and their motorised LEGO® model.
FIRST® LEGO® League Explore. rapidly develops teamwork, design, programming and communication skills, but the most important thing is that it’s great fun!
Unearthed
This year's FIRST LEGO League theme was called 'Unearthed', in which teams learned about all the jobs, roles and challenges connected to archaeology. Everything from searching for and finding artifacts at dig sites to preserving, restoring and displaying the things that are found, so we can all learn about our rich history.
The team models on display at the festival showcased all of this and more! We saw machines and robots designed to help archaeologists find artifacts, dig site displays, networks of caves, scenes from different periods of history, museums, laboratories and more!.
Marvellous moving models
One of the key parts of FIRST® LEGO® League Explore, is giving children a chance to develop their coding skills. Nothing does this better than physical coding.
Physical computing engages students and gives tangible meaning to the effects of code for them. It's great for students who struggle with abstract concepts as it provides instant results and immediate multi-sensory feedback. Debugging is often easier too. When the code fails, the physical device makes it obvious.
Physical computing also lends itself to teamwork, collaboration, speaking and listening - all such important skills for students to develop.
In FIRST® LEGO® League Explore, teams typically use a LEGO® Education SPIKE Essential kit, which is a fantastic mix of traditional LEGO bricks and a few Technic LEGO parts. It also contains a battery hub with built in tilt sensor, colour sensor, LED light display box and two motors.
Our teams made great use of these parts to make different parts of their team models move and come to life. Many added sensors, lights and sounds and could confidently demonstrate and explain the code they had written to make it all work.
Shout out to our sponsors!
Our North Tyneside and Northumberland FIRST LEGO League events are run in collaboration with Sage and Northumberland County Council.
A global company, based here in the North East, Sage have been incredible supporters of FIRST® LEGO® League since 2017. They fund all the competition entry fees for our schools and as well as the festival venue. They also provide an army of volunteers, through their Sage Foundation volunteering programmes. We are so grateful to have their support which has enabled thousands of young people to have amazing STEM experiences over the years.
Looking ahead to next year
As we put our trowels and brushes away and wave goodbye to the archaeological Unearthed theme, we are already looking forward to next season.
A new rainforest inspired theme - 'Bioglow' awaits as we enter the 2026/27 season. It will be the last ever FIRST LEGO League season as FIRST and LEGO recently announced their decision to pursue different competition directions beyond that. But new adventures will emerge and we’ll certainly make sure that the young people of the North East continue to have access to outstanding STEM opportunities.
Ready to find out more?
If you are interested in being part of our FIRST LEGO League events in any kind of way, take a look at our computing curriculum website or please get in touch.
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