News

BIOGLOW™ launched on August 5, with the Founders and Future Editions starting the new season in parallel. To make sure everything was ready for kickoff, more than 40 documents and videos were translated, prepared, and made available to our community in the weeks leading up to the launch. Now it’s the teams’ turn: they are diving into the world of biodiversity and developing their own ideas and solutions!

Around 70 groups are now working on the new Future Edition 8+ missions. Regional events are filling up as well: places are already becoming limited in five of our twelve Future regions, and the combined Future and Founders Edition event in Tyrol is already fully booked.

Demand for the Founders Edition is also high: 521 Challenge teams are registered for 55 competitions, while 136 Explore teams are registered for 48 exhibitions. Ten Challenge and five Explore events are already fully booked.

With the Future Edition and the transition to LEGO League, our educational program is undergoing a major transformation. It is currently one of the central topics for our organization and our team and is affecting the FIRST LEGO League community worldwide. Our priority is to guide this transformation transparently in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and to bring our community along on this journey.

Around 70 groups are already working with the new Future Edition challenges. This gives teams and coaches their first hands-on experience and brings the new edition to life step by step. At the same time, we want to communicate openly: not all questions have been answered yet, and some aspects of the framework are still evolving. We therefore share updates based on the latest information available and incorporate practical experience and feedback into our next steps.

Dialogue with our community has been part of the transformation from the very beginning – from information calls in the spring and our workshop at didacta to the presentation at the Final. Right now, our focus is on gathering practical experience, addressing open questions, and supporting teams and coaches as they get started with the Future Edition.

This season, Magna International Germany, an international automotive supplier, is supporting FIRST LEGO League Future Edition 8+. Together, we are enabling 10 teams from areas surrounding Magna’s German locations to take part in the educational program. Secondary schools in the Meerane/Zwickau, Soest/Paderborn, and Untersteißheim/Greater Munich regions are eligible to apply.

As an organization, we want FIRST LEGO League to reach as many children and young people as possible – regardless of the financial resources available to their school. Companies, foundations, and public-sector partners play a key role in making this possible: their support allows us to reach schools and teams that might otherwise find it difficult or impossible to participate, helping us increase the reach and impact of our educational program.

We have already shared details about the support provided by Magna International Germany. In addition, several other funding opportunities are currently available in Germany and Austria:

• New this season is the Sedinum Foundation, which is enabling up to ten schools in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to participate in the Future Edition.
• The Motorola Solutions Foundation is supporting 14 Future Edition teams each in Germany and Austria.
• Novelis is also providing a small number of funded places for Founders Edition teams near its German locations.
• The Hessian Ministry of Education is once again providing support: primary and lower secondary schools in Hesse can receive funding for Explore, Challenge, and Future Edition 8+.

Registration for the new FIRST® LEGO® League season BIOGLOW™ has been open since May 19. Already, more than 200 teams and classes have registered for the Founders Edition, alongside 12 teams participating in the Future Edition.

With BIOGLOW™, teams will explore the fascinating ecosystems of our planet. This season focuses on biodiversity and the interaction between nature, technology, and innovation. The season challenges will be released during the official kickoff on August 4, 2026. From then on, teams will develop their own creative solutions to the season's challenges.

LEGO Education has announced the future direction of its competition system. The 2026/27 BIOGLOW™ season of FIRST® LEGO® League will be the last joint season with FIRST.

From August 2027, the new LEGO® League will launch, continuing the concept with a focus on STEM education, teamwork, and competitions for ages 5 to 16.

At the beginning of May, the team rhsRobotix² from Ricarda-Huch-School Braunschweig took part in the FIRST Championship in Houston, testing the new FIRST® LEGO® League Future Edition 8+ in an international showcase format.

The current Impact Report for the 2025 financial year of HANDS on TECHNOLOGY shows how our work creates impact and the contribution that FIRST® LEGO® League makes as a key STEM education program.

It illustrates how children and young people are inspired at an early stage to engage with STEM through our programs and develop technical, social, and creative skills – from teamwork and problem-solving to presentation abilities.

HANDS on TECHNOLOGY was recently honored as one of 32 initiatives across Germany in the “National Award – Education for Sustainable Development.”

The award by the German UNESCO Commission and the Federal Ministry of Education, Family, Seniors, Women and Youth recognizes organizations that actively implement the goals of the 2030 Agenda.

The grand finale of the FIRST LEGO League D-A-CH in Leipzig is just around the corner, marking the highlight of an intense season. The best teams from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will come together to showcase their projects, exchange ideas, and share this special moment.

The FIRST LEGO League is evolving! As the next step in the global development of the program, FIRST and LEGO Education introduced the Future Edition on January 12, 2026. It brings new opportunities for project-based learning and exciting ways to experience computer science and AI in the classroom.

At the didacta education fair in Cologne on March 11, 16 participants from across Germany attended a taster workshop to gain first in-depth insights into the new program format and try it out for themselves.