Byrd LEGO® League Team - Penguins #9753
Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center has been hosting FIRST® LEGO® League teams since the 2012 season, when Dr. Bryan Mark and his graduate student formed the first Penguins team. Each year, Byrd sponsors the Penguins and provides meeting space and LEGO® robotics sets for the team to use. The Penguins design and program a LEGO robot using the LEGO® Spike Prime set to complete autonomously as many mission challenges within 2.5 minutes. In addition to the robot challenge, each team must identify a problem aligned with each season's theme and develop a solution to present at the tournament. Lastly, the Penguins are judged on how well they exhibit the core values associated with FIRST® LEGO® League. Each FLL Challenge season begins in August and ends by May, with the initial regional qualifying tournament held between late November and early January.
The theme for the 2026 season is BIOGLOW™. Click Season Welcome Video to view the season video. More information about the season and resources can be found on the FIRST® LEGO® League website.
The Penguins generally meet for three hours each week, either on Friday evenings from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM or Sunday afternoons from 2:00 PM until 5:00 PM, depending on the availability of the team members. The team size ranges from 3-10 members.
Tom Kassebaum is the current primary team coach and team administrator. He has coached Byrd's FIRST® LEGO® League teams since 2014.
Our tentative first meeting will be the week of Sunday, August 23, 2026 to discuss the season and begin building the LEGO® challenge kit models.
Please contact Tom Kassebaum at kassebaum.1@osu.edu for more information about joining the Penguins and to be added to the Penguins mailing list.
If you would like to support the Penguins, please considering donating to our fund.