For five consecutive years, the FIRST LEGO League Challenge program has been successfully held in Serbia, thanks to the dedicated organization of the association Prava Priča and the partner organization from Slovenia – Super Glavce. Ove sezone, završni događaj okupio je 15 izuzetnih timova i održan je 11. maja 2025. godine u Požarevcu. Domaćini događaja bile su Požarevac gymnasium and Primary school ,,Kralj Aleksandar I”.

The FIRST LEGO League Challenge program is built around four core areas that carry equal importance: Robot Game, Robot Design, Innovative Project, and Core Values.. Each of these areas gives teams the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, creativity, and teamwork from different perspectives.

As a part of Robot Game, teams are tasked with designing and programming a robot capable of completing missions on a specially designed field. During the tournament, each team is given three attempts, each lasting two and a half minutes, to achieve the highest possible score. Once all rounds are completed, the team’s best run is counted, and the winner is the one that earns the most points.

In the Robot Design category, the judges evaluate how effectively and thoughtfully the team has developed its robot — from the mechanical design and mission strategy to how clearly the children explain their working process. Special attention is given to the programming logic, team collaboration, and the innovative solutions they have implemented.

Innovative Project serves as the central theme of each season. Over several months of preparation, teams explore a real-world problem and develop creative solutions aimed at improving their community. This year’s theme, SUBMERGEDencouraged participants to contribute to improving ocean research. In their presentations, teams showcased how they developed, tested, and communicated their ideas to the target audience.

At the heart of everything FIRST LEGO League stands for are the Core Values – discovery, innovation, inclusion, teamwork, impact, and fun.. They are not just part of the evaluation but a thread that connects all participants. The assessment focuses on how children support each other, collaborate with mentors, interact with other teams, and foster a positive environment, all in the spirit of respect and shared learning.

Team spirit, innovation, inclusiveness, a research-oriented approach, positive impact, and the joy the children demonstrated throughout the program were all recognized and rewarded with medals and certificates of appreciation for all participants.

Based on their overall performance across all four areas of the FIRST LEGO League Challenge program – robot game, robot design, innovation project, and Core Values – one team stood out and earned the title of Challenge Program Champion in Serbia for the 2024/25 season. This team is “Kopipodi” from the First Kragujevac gymnasium. With this achievement, “Kopipodi” received an invitation to participate in the global competition – the Florida Sunshine Invitational.

Throughout the day, one team stood out in each area of the program and was awarded a trophy in that category.

The highest score in the robot game was achieved by the team “Kopipodi” from First Kragujevac gymnasium , whose robot demonstrated exceptional precision and tactical efficiency, earning the most points. The award for best robot design went to the team “LEGOKings” from Primary school ,,Kralj Aleksandar I” in Požarevac, who combined technical sophistication with a clear demonstration of their robot’s planning, design, and programming process. The most inspiring innovation project was presented by the team “Zmajevi” from The International School of Belgrade, who fully addressed the challenges of the SUBMERGED theme and creatively connected art, technology, and community. The team that best exemplified the Core Values was “KoraLEGO” from the Raška Gymnasium, whose behavior, mutual respect, and openness to others made them true ambassadors of the FIRST LEGO League program values.

This year, the “NajŠtand” (Best Booth) award was presented for the second time, recognizing the team that showcased their team, the season’s theme, and the program’s values in an especially imaginative and inclusive way—through active interaction with other teams and festival visitors. The trophy for this award went to the team “Snorkijevci” from the First technical school in Kragujevc. The honorary title “Rising Star” was earned by the team “Logiscooleri” from the Logiscool programming school in Novi Sad, as the judges recognized strong potential in this team and expect significant achievements from them in the future. For the first time, one team was nominated by their peers for the “Peer Award,” which celebrates collaboration, cooperation, and gracious professionalism. This recognition was awarded to the team “KoraLEGO” from the Raška Gymnasium.

As in previous seasons, this year as well the team of judges and reviewers closely observed every aspect of the teams’ work, recognizing the effort, knowledge, and creativity they had invested over the course of many months.

To ensure that every mission within the robot game was accurately recorded and fairly scored, the process was overseen by Danijela Pantić, Aleksa Gligorijević, and Mihailo Miletić, led by the experienced head referee Mihailo Šundović.

The evaluation of the innovation projects was entrusted to an expert panel that carefully listened to and assessed the teams’ ideas, the problems they identified, and the solutions they proposed — Ivan Paunović, Ljubica Mudrić Staniškovski, and Srđan Milanović.

How deeply the Core Values were woven into each team’s behavior, communication, and group dynamics was carefully evaluated by Ivana Vasić, Sandra Stojković, and Ivana Pavlović, with close attention paid to every moment of collaboration, support, and mutual respect among the participants.

Special attention was also given to how participants programmed their robots, developed the design, and selected strategies for completing the missions. In this area, the evaluations were carried out with great care by Ivan Stanimirović, Vladan Doljančević, and Luka Čubrović.

The coordination of this dedicated team was ensured by Tijana Jakić, Judge Advisor of the FIRST LEGO League program in Serbia. As in previous seasons, her role was essential in maintaining consistency, fairness, and a positive atmosphere throughout the entire evaluation process.