How To Volunteer at
FIRST^® LEGO^® League Events

FIRST® LEGO® League introduces STEM to children through fun, exciting, hands-on learning. Participants gain real-world problem-solving experiences through a guided, global robotics program using LEGO® technology, helping today’s students and teachers build a better future together. FIRST LEGO League’s three divisions inspire youth to experiment, grow their critical thinking, coding, and design skills, and showcase what they have learned while doing it with Gracious Professionalism.

FIRST Mid-Atlantic is the brand pseudonym for Mid-Atlantic Robotics, a New Jersey Non-Profit Corporation with IRS 501(c)(3) exemption as a charitable organization. It was created in October 2010 to promote and implement FIRST Robotics Competition programs to benefit all teams in our region.

Starting in 2019, our responsibility has extended to run FIRST® LEGO® League in our PA-East and NJ-North regions. The combined regions have 500+ FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge teams and 200+ FIRST® LEGO® League Explore teams. We all understand the importance of engaging all children early to spark their interest in STEM. We welcome you to join us.

Gracious professionalism is a way of doing things that emphasizes respect, community, and high-quality work while also allowing for intense competition. It's a core value of FIRST, an organization that aims to inspire young people to pursue careers in science and technology.

Dr. Woodie Flowers, a co-founder of FIRST, coined the term. “GP” is characterized by:

Respect: Treating others with kindness and respect and avoiding trash-talking
Sharing: Selflessly sharing knowledge, experience, and knowhow with others
Mutual gain: Allowing for fierce competition while also working together to achieve mutual gain
Coopertition: Working together with others, even while competing, to help each other learn and innovate

As Woodie would say, “Act in a way that makes your grandmother proud!”

There are 14,000+ FIRST LEGO League teams worldwide! In our FIRST Mid-Atlantic footprint, we have about 700+ teams. Teams spend several months designing, building, programming, and testing their LEGO Challenge robots and Explore displays. Teams attend FLL Challenge competitions (grades 4-8) and FLL Explorer Festivals (grades 1-3) in late November, December, and January. Volunteers run all of these events. Events are usually a day long, and many job opportunities exist.

As a volunteer, you can take on any number of roles.

As a coach, this is the perfect opportunity to see what good teams look like. However, if your team is at the event, please do not judge. When you do eventually judge, we expect you to be honest when evaluating other teams.

As a coach, we encourage you to invite your parents to volunteer and possibly Judge. We need many voices in this process.

Remember, it is not about an award or trophy. It is about helping build students who are not afraid to make mistakes, are persistent, try hard, and can tell you all about what they learned. This is a gift that will last them a lifetime. Ask any judge or volunteer. We know our future is bright because we have seen these students succeed. Please help us do that.

The position we need most is FLL Challenge Judges. We need people outside our world to help us judge at FLL Challenge Events and your diverse experience to help us determine our event leaders.

Some say, “I do not know anything about robots. So how can I judge?” This is not rocket science!!! It all comes down to talking to the students to see if they understand what they are doing. You will undergo FIRST judge training and additional event training before your event. If you are a team coach, you will gain valuable insight into what good teams need to be successful.

As a Judge, you will be part of a Judging room. There will be two to four judges in total. There are no experts! Teams will come in for a ½ hour session. To help you, we provide you with...

What are you supposed to be looking for? The Rubric spells it all out. Each Rubric item is graded from 1 to 4, which generates the final score for the judging portion.
We want to know...

Did the team do the work?
Does the team understand what they are talking about?
Do they respect each other during the discussion?
Do they look like they are having fun doing it?

This process can be stressful for the students, so we like to put them at ease. We want to tell them up front, "It is ok to make mistakes!!!!" If they make mistakes and get flustered, we will say, “Stop, take a deep breath, and then continue." Sometimes, we tell them if they are not making mistakes, they are not trying hard enough. We want them to have a good experience. We want to help them grow up. This experience alone pays excellent dividends as they get older.

Many of these students are not good at sports. This experience gives them the same learning as being part of a sports team. They are challenged, and they fail, but they keep trying. We challenge them to learn new and really cool things. At the end of the season, they may not do as well as they wanted, but ask them what they learned! They will give you an earful.

Events With Critical Need of Volunteers

FIRST Mid-Atlantic PA-East FLL Challenge Championship
FIRST Dashboard Search: PA-East (Feb. 1-2, 2025) Volunteer 1 or 2 days

PA State FLL Challenge Championship
FIRST Dashboard Search: PA-State (Feb. 15, 2025)

For questions, contact Frank Larkin, Phone: 215-823-9593, Email: [email protected]

Updated: 1/3/2025

Steps to Become a Volunteer

Create a FIRST Account

FIRST provides a Volunteer Registration Guide to help you navigate its registration system. As mentioned, this system is used worldwide to register volunteers and coaches and to run events. When selecting our events, you look up using...

Northern NJ to see all our NJ-North events, including the NJ-North Challenge Championship
PA-East to see all our Eastern PA Events, including PA-East Challenge Championship
PA-State for the PA-State FLL Challenge Championship (Feb.)

PA Act 153 Clearances (PA Events Only)

Volunteering at an event in PA will require additional clearances from the State of Pennsylvania. These are easy to do and are good for 60 months. These are the same as what you would need if you were a substitute teacher in a school in PA. Please refer to the Youth Protection and Clearances to get that process started.

Important: Please look at the Flow Chart to know your necessary clearances.

Selecting an Event to Volunteer

If you volunteer for FMA FLL Events, you will look them up in your FIRST dashboard.

Step 0: Sign into your FIRST dashboard. The guide above explains it all.

Step 1: Click the Volunteer Registration Tab, then Select Event Volunteering

Step 2: Click the Clear Filters button on the right

Step 3: Click the FIRST Programs you want… Explore, or Challenge, or Both

Step 4: Scroll to the bottom of the screen, and under Name, enter these search words to view our regions’ events.

Northern NJ to see all our NJ-North events, including the NJ-North Challenge Championship
PA-East to see all our Eastern PA Events, including PA-East Challenge Championship
PA-State for the PA-State FLL Challenge Championship (Feb.)

Step 5: Select the event and follow the instructions to select your possible jobs.

Step 6: If selected, you may need to undergo training on your FIRST dashboard. Eventually, the event’s volunteer coordinator will contact you to get you all set.

As a volunteer, you will receive a volunteer shirt and have access to the volunteer lounge for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Finally, you will receive thanks from all involved.

Questions, contact Frank Larkin, Phone: 215-823-9593, Email: [email protected]

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How To Volunteer atFIRST® LEGO® League Events