The 2025/2026 FIRST LEGO League season was themed UNEARTHED and focused on archaeology, historical discoveries and modern technologies for exploring past cultures. The LEGO Club in Neu Golm took on this challenge with great commitment, creativity and technical skill.
This season, two teams represented our LEGO Club: Team Experience, with four young people aged 12 to 16, and Team Minions, made up of four girls and four boys aged 12 to 13.
Preparation with Strong Commitment
For many months, the teams met every Wednesday evening in the Foundation's rooms in Neu Golm to work together on their robots and research projects.
Throughout the season, the young participants were accompanied and supported by coaches Timo and Anke. Together with dedicated parents, they helped the teams with technical challenges, competition preparation and the development of the research projects.
Their commitment, patience and continuous support made a major contribution to the positive development of the teams and to the success of the season. Especially during the intensive preparation phase and on the long competition days, they were important points of contact and support for the children and young people.
Technology Meets Archaeology
The focus of the season was the connection between science, creativity and technology. In addition to the Robot Game, both teams developed their own research projects around the use of modern technologies in archaeology.
Team Experience developed a system to support archaeological work and the digital documentation of finds. The young people built a working prototype of a device that can first clean artefacts and then scan them. The aim was to record delicate finds as efficiently as possible and document the related research data in a structured way.
It was particularly remarkable that the team developed and implemented the prototype independently. Many components were produced by the team using a 3D printer. The young people also handled the wiring, soldering and technical assembly of the system themselves. In addition, the team developed its own app for storing and managing information about artefacts, including data about the object itself, its condition and the place where it was found.
By combining cleaning, scanning and digital recording, the team created a well thought-out system intended to support archaeological workflows. It was impressive to see how intensively the young people engaged with real challenges in archaeological research and developed their own technical solution from them.
Team Minions also developed a creative idea for archaeological use. The young people constructed the robot Grehebri, a name derived from the German words for gripping, lifting and bringing. The robot was designed to enter narrow caves or areas that are difficult to access, pick up objects there and transport them safely into a container.
Grehebri can also scan the ground, remove material and extract it by suction in order to detect hidden objects or artefacts. To present their project clearly, the team also developed a short play showing how the robot works and where it could be used.
Regional Competition in Eisenhüttenstadt
The first major competition of the season took place on 23 January 2026 in Eisenhüttenstadt.
For Team Minions, it was the first competition season. The excitement before the first runs at the robotics table was correspondingly high. Despite the tension, the team improved significantly over the course of the competition and increased its performance from round to round. Although qualification for the final rounds was not yet achieved, the young people gained valuable experience and showed strong team spirit as well as great potential for future competitions.
The competition was particularly successful for Team Experience. The team achieved consistently strong results in the preliminary rounds and qualified for the final rounds. There, the team once again demonstrated concentration, technical skill and strong nerves. In the second final run, Experience achieved the best result of the day with 425 points, laying the foundation for the further success of the season.
With these performances, the team qualified for the next round of the competition and began an exceptionally successful season.
Historic Success: First Participation in the D-A-CH Final
After further successful competitions, Team Experience continued its path and ultimately qualified for the FIRST LEGO League D-A-CH Final in Leipzig.
This meant that the LEGO Club reached the D-A-CH Final for the first time in its history - a very special milestone for the entire team, the coaches and all supporters.
At the D-A-CH Final, the best teams from Germany, Austria and Switzerland compete against each other. Qualification alone was an exceptional success and the result of months of preparation, intensive teamwork and a great passion for technology and robotics.
Throughout the season, it became clear again and again how much the young people learned not only technically, but also personally. Teamwork, creative problem-solving, perseverance and independent work played just as important a role as programming and constructing the robots.
More Than a Competition
For many years, the LEGO Club has taught far more than technical knowledge. Children and young people learn to master challenges together, develop ideas and take responsibility within a team.
The 2025/2026 season once again showed how much enthusiasm, creativity and commitment the young participants bring with them. We are proud of both teams and are already looking forward to the coming season.
How Does the FIRST LEGO League Work?
In the FIRST LEGO League, teams do not simply compete against each other with a finished robot. The competition combines technology, research, creativity and teamwork.
Each season has an international theme - this year it was UNEARTHED. Teams all over the world work on the same core topic and receive identical tasks for the Robot Game. For this, there is a standardised playing field with defined missions that all teams have to solve.
The task is to steer a self-built and self-programmed LEGO robot across the field as precisely as possible so that it can complete different missions. Teams receive points for successfully completed missions. Within a fixed time limit, they try to complete as many tasks as possible.
Alongside the Robot Game, the competition also includes a research project. Here, the teams develop their own ideas and solutions related to the season theme. There is deliberately plenty of room for creativity and individual approaches. The young people work on real questions and develop their own technical or scientific concepts from them.
The judging includes several areas:
- performance in the Robot Game,
- quality and creativity of the research project,
- technical implementation,
- teamwork and collaboration,
- and the presentation to the jury.
As a result, the FIRST LEGO League is not only about technology or speed. It is also about learning together, creative problem-solving and developing ideas of one's own.