Lego Education's Space-Themed Sets Are Ready for Lift-Off

Prepare for lift-off, kids.

Lego Education today provided a glimpse at two new space-themed sets that participants will use for the 2018-2019 FIRST Lego League challenges.

Every year, Lego Education teams up with FIRST, a science and technology-focused youth organization founded by entrepreneur Dean Kamen, for a competition that asks teams of elementary and high school school kids to research a real-world problem (food safety, recycling, energy) and come up with ideas to solve it. They also design, build, and program a robot using Lego Mindstorms and compete on a table-top playing field.

The 2017-2018 season, which focused on Hydro Dynamics, is wrapping up this week with championships in Houston and Detroit. Registration for the 2018-2019 season begins next month and its focus will be space.

Participants will get to play with two new space-themed sets designed in collaboration with astronauts. The "Into Orbit" and "Mission Moon" sets aim to get students excited about space exploration while helping to develop their science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills.

Children ages 9 through 16 will participate in the FIRST Lego League "Into Orbit" challenge, during which "teams will design, build and code an autonomous Lego Mindstorms robot to perform a series of space-themed missions on a playing field," the organizations wrote in a news release. "They will also research a problem they identify and design an innovative solution to that problem."

Meanwhile, children ages 6 through 10 will participate in the FIRST LegoLeague Jr. "Mission Moon" challenge. Teams will use the Mission Moon Inspire Set unveiled today to "build a model based on the challenge and use Lego Education WeDo 2.0 to program it to move," the companies said.

Altogether, more than 350,000 children around the world are expected to participate in the Mission Moon and Intro Orbit challenges using these new sets.

"At Lego Education, we believe the skills fostered through fun, developmental programs like those we create with FIRST will teach our children that anyone can release their potential to innovate," Lego Education President Esben Stærk Jørgensen said in a statement. "We are excited to see the FIRST LegoLeague Jr. and FIRST Lego League projects that children around the world will create."

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes.

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app.

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth.

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light.

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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