2026-2027 Foothill ROBOTICS/ FLL League   

 

About the FOOTHILL ROBOTICS TEAM

The Foothill Robotics Team (affiliated to First Lego League) was created to give our upper-classmen Dolphins an introduction to engineering design, creating innovative solutions to solving key practical issues and competitive robotics skills.

 

This year's program will be managed by Vish Abrams and his email is robotics@saratogafoothillpta.org. 

 

All students in 4th and 5th grades are welcome to participate in FLL in the Fall. Starting in the Spring, we will be introducing a new robotics competition program, VEX Robotics, suitable for younger grades. A separate registration page will be created for the Vex program in the Fall 2026. Vex is also the robotics program that Redwood Middle School  follows so introducing our students to VEX prepares them well for the middle school program. 

 

What does the FLL Season Look Like? 

The FLL season starts immediately after school begins since the 2026-2027 season officially kicks off and releases its challenges worldwide on August 4, 2026, about a week *before* school starts. So our teams need to hit the ground running as soon as school starts. The first competition is typically in November. Typically the season ends around November/December. But if any of the teams ascend to the higher levels of the competition, the season could extend to the following year.  

 

What is the FLL Theme for 2026/2027? 

The official theme for the 2026-2027 season is BIOGLOW, centering the robotics missions around biodiversity and ecosystems. Our teams will be exploring the connections between nature, technology, and innovation.  The robot game missions, playing field mat, and project prompts will be released on August 4, 2026. Here's a video introducing the theme for this upcoming season: 

 

 

Here is the link to the FLL page where you can learn more about the BIOGLOW theme: https://www.firstinspires.org/programs/fll/game-and-season 

 

How did our teams do in the 2025-2026 Season? 

Last year, in the 2025/2026 season, Foothill had 6 teams, the largest number of teams since we started this program in 2023. We also performed the best we've ever performed. For the first time, we had 2 teams reach the semi-finals. Many of our students have gone on to join the Redwood Middle School robotics program. 

 

 

Parent Involvement:
Parent involvement is an extremely crucial part of forming FLL teams. Each team will require 2 parent coaches. Parent coaches are there to guide students through technical and non-technical challenges. You DO NOT need to have a background in engineering or STEM to coach your student's team. Additionally, we will need parent volunteers to help monitor build sessions. Parent monitors and coaches will all need to be cleared by the district as volunteers. Finally, we will need parents at home to help us with logistics. We are hoping each family will be able to provide a minimum of 2 and perhaps as many as 40-60 hours (for our team mentors) of volunteer time throughout the season. The Saratoga High School robotics team, MSET, will provide mentorship for our teams.

 

Student Commitment:
Students will start working on the challenge when school starts in August. We expect students to meet 3-4 hours per week at the beginning. These hours will be spread over one or two meetings during the week. Times and days are still to be determined and depend largely on the high school mentor availability. As we get closer to the initial competitions in November, most teams meet many more hours for the several weeks prior to competition. We need strong commitments from our student members to help support their teams. If Foothill teams are among the top-ranked teams at the November competitions, there are additional competitions that extend into the spring of 2026. 

 

MSET mentors:

1-2 Saratoga High School students from the MSET Program will mentor Foothill's FLL teams in the Robot Game, Innovation Project, and Core Values. Mentors will volunteer roughly 2-3 hours per week with preparing the teams for competition. 

 

Material:

 

All necessary material for the season will be provided by the PTA.

 

FLL Values:

All teams will also be measured on their embodiment of the FLL values - namely, teamwork, discovery, inclusion, innovation, impact and fun.

 

 

Key Dates:

  • Ice Cream Social - Aug 13 4:30pm - 6:30pm 

    • Register your team, learn about the robotics program, meet the Robotics leads, and see some robots in action. Also allows parents to get setup as school volunteers (involves getting fingerprints taken and submitting a background check form to the district) which is required to be a parent team lead. 

  • Parent Information Session - Aug 21 - 7pm

    • Vish and a parent from last year will present on the robotics program for 2026/2027 and walk through the logistics, competition dates, BIOGLOW missions, values, etc. This will also be a forum for you to ask questions and learn more about how this benefits your kid. 

  • Sep 30 11:59PM - Team Registration Closes

  • Nov 1-30 - Tournament (tentative) 

  • Dec 1 - Feb 28 - Post-Season for advancing teams (tentative)

 

 
 
 

 

 

 PLEASE NOTE THE REGISTRATION PAGE IS ONLY OPEN TO 4th and 5th GRADE PARENTS. IF YOU'RE IN A YOUNGER GRADE, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE REGISTRATION PAGE AND YOU WILL BE TAKEN TO A 404 PAGE.