For four consecutive seasons, the FIRST LEGO League Challenge program and competition have been successfully held, organized by the “Prava Priča” Association, the Serbian Tech organization, and the Slovenian partner organization Super Glavce. This season, the final event of the Challenge program, featuring 18 participating teams, took place on February 11, 2024, at the “Stojan Novaković” Primary School in Šabac.

In addition to the invitation to participate in the regional competition in Slovenia, the top three teams received valuable prizes from our partner, Kockarium.
As always, inspiring children and young people to develop their skills and create a better future was the foundation of the Program.

The FIRST LEGO League Challenge program consists of four equally weighted and evaluated components: Robot Game, Robot Design, Innovation Project, and Core Values.

One of the teams’ tasks during preparation is to program and design a robot that will complete missions on a special field and collect points. This part of the Program is called the Robot Game, and the teams had three attempts of two and a half minutes each to achieve the best possible result. Once all teams had used their three attempts to overcome the obstacles, each team’s best score was taken into account, and the winner was the team with the highest number of points.

During the presentation of the teams’ innovative solutions, the evaluation also took into account how each team designed and programmed their robot, developed their mission tactics, and how they presented the entire process. The component encompassing all of these elements is known as Robot Design.

Every season is defined by an Innovation Project theme that teams work on for several months. This year’s theme, MASTERPIECE, focused on combining art and technology to bring the activities and hobbies teams love to as many people as possible. Before a panel of judges, the teams presented their solutions and the ways they reached their target audience.

The uniqueness of the Program lies in the Core Values that represent its foundation: Innovation, Discovery, Teamwork, Inclusion, Impact, and Fun. Evaluation takes into account how participants treat their teammates, mentors, other teams, organizers, and everyone who is part of their team journey.

The teamwork, innovation, inclusion, discovery, impact, and fun of all participants were rewarded with medals and certificates of participation.

When taking into account the engagement across all four components of the program, the team that stood out the most and claimed the title of Challenge Program Champions in Serbia for the 2023/24 season is the LEGOMusketari team from the First Kragujevac Gymnasium.

In addition to LEGOMusketari, the teams LEGO Kings from the “Kralj Aleksandar I” Primary School in Požarevac and Leg008 from the Raška Gymnasium will also travel to Slovenia for the regional competition.

All three teams demonstrated exceptional respect for the Core Values and identified, designed, created, and communicated their Innovation Project ideas and solutions, as well as their robot design and programming, at a very high level.

Within each component of the Program, one team stood out particularly and deservedly took home the trophy in that category.

When looking at the overall points scored in the Robot Game, the LEGOMusketari team from the First Kragujevac Gymnasium took first place. The trophy for the best-programmed and designed robot went to the Leg008 team from the Raška Gymnasium. The LEGO Kings team from the “Kralj Aleksandar I” Primary School in Požarevac provided the most comprehensive response to this season’s theme. The foundation of the FIRST LEGO League program is its Core Values, which were most prominently incorporated by the “Noobovi” team from the “Digi Klinci” programming school in Belgrade.

This season, for the first time, the “Best Booth” (najŠtand) award was presented. It was given to the team that uniquely showcased the season’s theme, their team journey, and their hometown, while successfully interacting with other teams and visitors. All teams put in an extraordinary effort, and the CodePogim team from the Požarevac Gymnasium stood out the most.

This season as well, the team of judges and referees carefully and thoroughly monitored everything the teams had been working on over the previous months.

To ensure that every move and completed mission on the Robot Game field was monitored in detail, Danijela Pantić, Aleksa Gligorijević, and Mihailo Miletić performed their duties, led by Head Referee Mihailo Šundović.

Every idea, identified problem, innovative solution, and their presentation was followed by three Innovation Project judges: Danka Mitrović Laništanin, Mirko Spasojević, and Valentin Šeško.

To what extent each team incorporated the Core Values into their work and behavior during the final event was evaluated by Milica Arsić, Sandra Stojković, and Nemanja Stojšić.

The evaluation also considered how the participants programmed the robot, constructed its design, and chose their missions and the strategies to complete them. All of this was carefully observed and listened to by the Robot Design judges: Suad Suljović, Ivan Paunović, and Ivan Miletić.

This team of enthusiasts was formed and held together by Tijana Jakić, the Judge Advisor for the FIRST LEGO League program in Serbia. This season, as in previous ones, Tijana had the serious task of overseeing the judges’ work and ensuring that everything ran smoothly and according to the highest standards.