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FIRST® LEGO® League District Tournament

Presented by the Great Lakes Science Center

The Great Lakes Science Center in partnership with FIRST in Ohio will host the 2026 Curiosity Open Jr., a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Challenge tournament on November 29, 2025! This District level qualifying tournament is free and open to the public and will be held at the Great Lakes Science Center from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM.

The FLL Challenge introduces science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to young people through fun, exciting hands-on learning. Teams of 2 to 10 students, ages 9 – 14, will understand the basics of STEM and apply their skills in an exciting competition while building confidence, learning teamwork, and gaining valuable life skills along the way.

FIRST® Core Values of discovery, inclusion, impact, innovation, teamwork, and fun are the cornerstones of the FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge program, distinguishing it from other programs of its kind. By embracing the Core Values, participants learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals and that helping each other is the foundation of teamwork.

This year's FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is called UNEARTHED, and is presented by Qualcomm. In this year’s challenge, participating children ages 9 to 14, will uncover the past to discover the future. Every artifact uncovered holds a story. Each tool, each innovation, each work of art connects students to the people and ideas that came before. Using STEM skills and teamwork, participating teams can dig deeper into discoveries than ever before!

During a FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge District tournament, teams compete in a sports-like environment where spectators cheer their successes. To prepare for a FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge tournament, teams work to build and program a robot to complete a number of tasks on a competition table. Teams also identify and research a problem related to the season theme and then design and create an innovative Project solution. During the tournament teams will meet with a distinguished panel of judges in separate interview rooms to be evaluated in three specific areas:

The Robot Design Judges will evaluate each team’s robot design, programming, and problem-solving strategies;
The Project Judges will evaluate their research project, their proposed solution, and the team’s outreach efforts in the community; and
The Core Values Judges will evaluate how well the group functioned as a team and incorporated the values of FIRST®.

FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is one of three divisions (by age group) that make up the FIRST® LEGO® League program. This program inspires young people to experiment and grow their confidence, critical thinking, and design skills through hands-on learning. FIRST® LEGO® League was created through an alliance between FIRST® and LEGO® Education.