FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is so much more than just building LEGO robots!

 

At Oak & Arrow Academy, our Christian learning community, students spend 20 weeks developing real-world STEM, engineering, leadership, and character through a fun, hands-on, team-based program in a Christ-centered environment.

To provide a high-quality, mentorship-focused experience, team enrollment is limited to just six students. This allows for individualized coaching, meaningful collaboration, and strong relationships between students, coaches, and families.

 

Throughout the season, students will learn:

• Robot design and engineering
• LEGO® SPIKE™ Prime programming & Coding
• Problem-solving and critical thinking
• Engineering notebook documentation
• Research and the Innovation Project
• Public speaking and presentation skills
• Teamwork and collaboration
• FIRST® Core Values and gracious professionalism
• Strategic game planning
• Robot testing, troubleshooting, and improvement
• Competition preparation and practice matches
• Time management and project planning
• Leadership and communication skills
• Creative thinking and innovation
• Confidence under pressure

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In addition to robotics, students receive Christian mentorship throughout the season.

 

We intentionally encourage biblical character, integrity, servant leadership, perseverance, kindness, respect, and a Christ-centered approach to working together as a team.

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Each week also includes intentional outdoor recreation and team-building activities, where students build friendships, develop confidence, practice leadership, and enjoy active play in a safe, supervised environment.

 

Throughout the season, students may also participate in educational field trips that enrich their FIRST® LEGO® League experience.

 

Depending on the year's Innovation Project theme, field trips may include visits to local businesses, engineering firms, manufacturing facilities, science centers, aquariums, environmental organizations, technology companies, universities, or meetings with STEM professionals.

 

These real-world experiences help students conduct research, ask meaningful questions, and connect classroom learning to the world around them.

 

Students finish the season by competing in an official FIRST® LEGO® League tournament, where they showcase everything they've learned in robot performance, innovation, teamwork, and engineering.

 

This isn't just a robotics team—it's a Christ-centered learning community where students grow in engineering, leadership, teamwork, character, and faith while preparing together for competition.

 

Team Size: 6 students
Season Length: 20 weeks
Ages: 9–14
Meeting Time: Mondays, 1:00–4:00 PM

Because of the limited team size, families will complete an application process to ensure a good fit and a shared commitment to the team throughout the entire season.

Lego League is an exciting time for building tech skills, teamwork, problem solving and communication. 

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Naples Session:

📍 Location: 440 9th ST. NW

🗓️ Date & Days: Mondays | 20 -Week Session  | Sept. 14th, 21st, 28th, Oct. 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th, Nov. 2nd, 9th, 16th, 30th, Dec. (Waiting for competition dates to be released from First Inspires for SW Florida for the months of Dec. / Jan. / Feb.)

⏰ Time: 1pm - 4pm

🎓 Ages: 9- 15

💲 Tuition: $1500 per student $200 Materials & Supplies

What Students Will Learn

Students who compete in FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Challenge learn much more than simply how to build a LEGO robot. It combines STEM, engineering, coding, research, teamwork, communication, and real-world problem solving.

 

Robotics & Engineering

Students learn how to:

• Design and build a functioning LEGO robot

• Understand gears, motors, sensors, attachments, and mechanical systems

• Use the engineering design process: design → build → test → fail → improve → retest

• Create specialized attachments to accomplish different missions

• Troubleshoot mechanical problems

• Learn that there may be several good solutions to the same engineering problem

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 Coding & Computational Thinking

Students program their robot to operate autonomously—the students cannot simply drive it with a remote during the Robot Game.

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• They develop skills in:

• Programming motors and sensors

• Sequences, loops, conditions, and variables

• Navigation, turns, distance, speed, and timing

• Breaking complicated problems into smaller steps

• Debugging code

• Improving accuracy and consistency

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Strategy & Problem Solving

The competition table presents numerous missions, and teams have limited time to complete them.

• Students learn to ask:
  Which missions should we attempt? Which can we combine? How can we score the most points reliably?

• That develops planning, prioritization, time management, analytical thinking, and decision-making.

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 Innovation Project & Real-World Research

• A major part of LEGO League is the Innovation Project.

• Students investigate a real-world problem connected to the year's competition theme.

         They:

• Research the subject

• Identify a specific problem

• Interview or learn from experts

• Brainstorm possible solutions

• Develop an innovative solution

• Create a prototype or model when appropriate

• Get feedback

• Improve their idea

• Present and defend their solution to judges

• This is one reason field trips and meetings with professionals can be such a valuable part of a LEGO League season.

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  Public Speaking & Presentation Skills

Competition isn't only about the robot. Students have to communicate with judges.

        They practice:

• Speaking clearly in front of adults

• Explaining their ideas

• Demonstrating their robot

• Answering unscripted questions

• Presenting research

• Defending engineering decisions

• Thinking on their feet

• For students who participate for several seasons, this can be an especially valuable confidence-building experience.

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Teamwork & Leadership

Students aren't competing individually—they succeed as a team.

         They learn:

• Leadership

• Cooperation

• Delegating responsibilities

• Listening to other people's ideas

• Resolving disagreements

• Encouraging teammates

• Sharing responsibilities

• Handling pressure

• Following through on commitments

• Students also begin discovering their strengths. One child may love coding, another building, another research, another strategy, and another public speaking.

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Core Values & Gracious Professionalism

• FIRST emphasizes that how students compete matters as much as what they accomplish.

• Students practice respect, teamwork, inclusion, discovery, innovation, impact, and fun. They learn to compete hard while treating teammates, judges, volunteers, and competing teams respectfully.

What Competition Day Teaches

Competition brings everything together. Students experience robot matches, judging sessions, deadlines, unexpected robot failures, questions from judges, victories, disappointments, and the excitement of representing their team.

• That teaches something a classroom lesson alone often can't: how to prepare for something difficult, perform under pressure, recover when something goes wrong, support your teammates, and finish strong.

• For your Oak & Arrow Academy Christian learning community, you can add another intentional layer: Christian mentorship and discipleship—using the season to teach servant leadership, integrity, perseverance, humility, encouragement, stewardship of talents, and honoring Christ in both winning and losing.

Course Tuition $1500 plus $200 materiels fee​.​​​​

Meet Your Coach

Shanna Springer is excited to be entering my fifth year coaching FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge! Her first  LEGO League journey began in 2019, and over the years she has had the privilege of coaching students through incredibly rewarding seasons filled with learning, teamwork, challenges, competition, and plenty of memorable moments.

 

Each season, our teams have earned trophies and awards, but some of our greatest accomplishments have been watching students grow in confidence, perseverance, leadership, problem-solving, and their ability to work together toward a common goal.

 

Through years of coaching, Shanna has developed extensive hands-on experience with the many different components of FIRST LEGO League—from robot design, building, programming, and Robot Game strategy to the Innovation Project, Core Values, judging rubrics, presentations, competition preparation, and the overall tournament process.

I also believe some of the best learning happens beyond the classroom. I enjoy incorporating field trips, real-world research, guest experts, team-building experiences, and hands-on opportunities that help students connect the season's challenge to the world around them.

 

One of the greatest advantages I bring to our team is an understanding of the entire LEGO League experience. She knows what students are preparing for, what judges are looking for, how the different portions of the competition fit together, and how to help a team progress from the beginning of the season all the way through competition day.

 

Most importantly, Shanna loves mentoring young people. At Oak & Arrow Academy, LEGO League is about more than winning trophies. As a Christian learning community, we want students to grow academically and technically while also developing biblical character, integrity, perseverance, servant leadership, teamwork, and confidence.

My goal is to create an environment where students are challenged, encouraged, and given opportunities to discover their God-given abilities while learning how to use those gifts as part of a team.

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We build robots—but we are also building thinkers, problem-solvers, leaders, teammates, and young people of character.

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What We Expect From Our

LEGO League Families

FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is a team experience, and every student plays an important role in the success of the team. Because our team is intentionally limited to only six students, we ask families to view enrollment as a commitment for the entire season rather than simply a weekly class. Parents can expect their student to be challenged to participate, collaborate, problem-solve, complete projects, prepare presentations, design and program the robot, and work toward competition goals. Consistent attendance and arriving on time are especially important because when one student is absent, it can affect the progress of the entire team.

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We also ask parents to be active partners throughout the season. This includes encouraging your student to persevere when things become challenging, helping them arrive prepared and on time, communicating with coaches, participating in occasional field trips or team activities when needed, and supporting the team as we approach tournaments and other important deadlines. There may be times during the competition season when additional practices or preparation outside our regular meeting time are necessary. We ask families to remain flexible and committed to finishing the season strong together.

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As a Christian learning community, we also ask families to support the Christ-centered culture of our team. We will intentionally encourage prayer, biblical character, integrity, kindness, humility, perseverance, servant leadership, and respect for coaches and teammates. Our goal is to create a close-knit team where students and parents encourage one another, work through challenges in a healthy way, celebrate one another's successes, and recognize that how we treat one another is just as important as what we accomplish.

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When your child joins our LEGO League team, your family becomes part of the team too. We want parents, students, and coaches working together toward the same goal: giving our students an exceptional LEGO League experience while helping them grow in knowledge, confidence, character, leadership, and faith.