Register Your Teams Now

• Registration is ongoing for the UNEARTHED season! When you register a team located in Michigan with FIRST, you are automatically a part of the FIRST in Michigan (FIM) team family! There is no additional registration required until October when event registration begins.
• Teams keep their number from year to year, so please re-register all current teams before registering a new team at your school/district.
• Each team will need two registered, screened coaches in order to register for events in Michigan. Coaches can be registered to multiple teams. All email communication will be sent to the two registered coaches, as well as the team admin if there is one registered.

Participation Reminder

• In Michigan, we run a slightly different progression of programs from FIRST national. In Michigan, FIRST LEGO League is an elementary school only program with teams comprised solely of elementary school aged/grade team members. To attend an event or receive any grants, FLLE teams must be aligned to the FIRST in Michigan progression of programs, consisting ONLY of students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade.
• FIRST LEGO League Explore team size is capped at 6. No exceptions are made, and smaller teams than this are highly encouraged (4-5 students.) Multiple teams out of a given school/organization are welcome.

Team Paperwork

Now is the time to start getting your team’s “paperwork” in order. It can take time to get coaches screened and consent forms signed, so start now. Rosters will be due the Monday before your event. You can find directions for completing your team’s required roster and consent forms at the Event Readiness page. If you have any questions on this process after reading through the Event Readiness page fully, please let me know.

Event Registration

• Event registration occurs in early October and more information/directions will be emailed later in September and posted to the events page as well.
• Event dates will be posted at the FIRST in Michigan FLLE Event page as dates are finalized.
• We still need additional events! Please email angela@firstinmichigan.org if you are interested in hosting an event this season. Hosting is a great way to have an event close to home! Hosts retain the per team event fee which comprises the budget for the event.

Grants

• MDE 99h grant:
  • Teams awarded the 99h MDE State Grant: Per legislation, any awarded funds for the 2024-25 grant year must be expended by September 30, 2025. Team Award funds can only be used by the team to which they were awarded. This grant is administered by the MDE and not FIRST in Michigan. Reach out to your fiscal partner regarding accessing awarded funds. 99h grant awards are posted at this link: https://www.techplan.org/edtech-initiatives/rdi/competitive-99h-robotics-competition-grant/. You can use leftover funding to pay your 2025 UNEARTHED registration or purchase materials for the upcoming season.
  • Teams that were awarded a 99h state grant but did not satisfy the FLLE competition participation requirement (participate in one FiM FLLE event in the SUBMERGED season), the MDE will no longer roll over awarded 99h grant funds into the next season. In this case, the MDE has defunded the amount of the 99h grant award for that team. The team will still be eligible to apply for the 2025-26 99h state grant.
  • The 99h state grant is still moving through the state budget legislative process. Current status is that it will likely be retained as a categorical line item. Stay tuned and we will email teams as soon as we have any news.
• Donors Choose:
  • Through generous support from 3M, FIRST® related DonorsChoose project funding is now available to any US-based full-time educators and school district employees who work directly with students at least 75% of the time from Public Schools, Public Charter School, Head Start Centers, and Bureau of Indian Education Schools. FIRST educators will create a project on DonorsChoose and once the project is live, they must complete this form to be considered for this selective funding opportunity. Projects will be reviewed to ensure they meet donor intent and partial funding will be allocated accordingly. For more information, please visit this page.

MICHIGAN RESOURCES

These four important pages have all the information you need to run a Michigan FIRST LEGO League Explore team each year:

• Resources page – annotated, organized list of links to everything for running a team and this season
• Events page – important pages linked at the top to help you register for an attend an event
• Run-a-Team page – step-by-step guide to running a team from registration to attending an event
• Grants page – information about all grants available to new or returning teams

EBLASTS