Introduction
FIRST LEGO League’s SUBMERGED season engages students in ocean exploration through LEGO robotics.
At NGMEH (Najmah Robotics) we leverage the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for grades K–2 and 3–5 to enrich this experience. Below we map NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs) in:
- Engineering Design,
- Physical Science,
- Life Science,
- Earth Science, and Crosscutting Concepts
to SUBMERGED-themed robotics activities. This alignment helps our coaches integrate standards-based learning into robot building, programming, modeling, and research projects.
Najmah Robotics program thoughtfully aligns FLL SUBMERGED season activities with NGSS, our coaches ensure that students aren’t just building robots for a competition, but also deeply learning science and engineering concepts.
Engineering Design – Building and Improving Robots
Engineering Design PEs connect strongly with the SUBMERGED robotics tasks as students design, test, and refine their LEGO robots and innovation projects.
Young students practice defining simple problems and imagining solutions.
These engineering practices mirror the design process teams follow in FIRST LEGO League: define the mission or real-world problem, brainstorm and model solutions, test repeatedly, and refine the design. Coaches can reinforce NGSS vocabulary during robot design sessions (e.g. “criteria,” “constraints,” “prototype,” “test data”) to make the connection explicit.
Physical Science – Forces, Motion, and Energy in Robotics
Designing a robot for ocean missions naturally links to physical science concepts of forces, motion, and energy.
In the SUBMERGED theme, one mission might involve lifting a “sunken treasure” – students learn that doing this quickly requires more energy or torque. This practical exposure helps illustrate ideas behind PEs like 4-PS3-4 (energy transfer in design solutions) even if not explicitly covered until middle school. Teachers can highlight how the robot is a system that converts stored energy (battery) into motion to perform work.
By tying robot performance to force and energy concepts, mentors give real meaning to abstract science ideas. For example, when a robot arm fails to lift an object, it’s a chance to discuss why (insufficient force, improper lever arm, friction, etc.). Students experience cause and effect firsthand: changing a gear ratio (cause) leads to a slower but stronger lift (effect). They also observe patterns in trials, reinforcing scientific thinking.
Life Science – Exploring Ocean Life and Ecosystems
The SUBMERGED theme explicitly focuses on “life beneath the surface of the ocean,” which links to NGSS life science standards around habitats, biodiversity, and organism adaptations. Teams not only build robots, but also research ocean biology for their Innovation Projects:
By investigating ocean life, students fulfill NGSS life science goals and give context to their robot missions. For example, a mission model might be a “whale” the robot has to rescue – prompting research into whale behavior or diet (addressing what animals need to survive, connecting to K-LS1-1).Earth & Space Science – Oceans, Earth Systems, and Human Impact
Crosscutting Concepts – Themes Connecting Science and Engineering
Across all the disciplines, NGSS Crosscutting Concepts provide a lens that students can use to make sense of both their robot and the ocean environment. Coaches should highlight these concepts during activities to deepen understanding:
Cause and Effect:
Patterns:
Repetition and patterns are inherent in coding and nature. Teams notice patterns in their robot’s sensor readings (e.g. a color sensor sees a repeated pattern of black and white lines for navigation) and patterns in nature, like day-night cycles affecting marine animals.
Systems and System Models:
Structure and Function:
This concept is vividly experienced in both nature and engineering. Students learn that the shape of an object or organism is related to what it does. NGSS explicitly links this idea in K-2 engineering design: “the shape and stability of structures of natural and designed objects are related to their function(s)”
In Summary
FIRST LEGO League SUBMERGED season offers a dynamic platform to address NGSS benchmarks. From engineering design cycles in robot building to discovering ocean science concepts and seeing important crosscutting themes in action, students will gain skills and knowledge that map directly to standards – all while having fun as young ocean explorers and robotics engineers. Teachers and coaches can feel confident that time spent on FLL is time spent meeting science learning goals, and students will remember the science better because they lived it through their robot and project. Students can also learn about the ocean environment and human impacts. This aerial view shows a reef flat in Guam with a developed coast in the distance – a vivid reminder of why we need to innovate for healthy oceans. In the SUBMERGED project, teams explore how communities (like those along this coastline) use science and engineering to protect reefs and marine life.
Such connections fulfill NGSS standards on human impacts and inspire students to apply their STEM skills for real-world good.
