The FIRST LEGO League Mission Model Building Instructions for “Animal Allies” will again be released at the beginning of August.  (This is in contrast to the 2015 “Trash Trek” season, where model instructions weren’t available until the challenge release date.)

Instructions will be available at http://www.firstlegoleague.org/missionmodelbuildinginstructions .

Many teams that register and purchase a field kit early in the summer will receive their LEGO parts and field mat during the last week of July.  With the release of the Building Instructions on August 1st teams can begin assembling the mission models and looking at the field, although the actual game challenges won’t be released until August 30th.  Building the mission models is an excellent way to start a FIRST LEGO League season, and can also be used to “break the ice” with new team members.

When you receive your field kit, don’t open up the bags of LEGOs or otherwise mix them up until you’ve looked at the mission model build instructions.  The numbers on the bags correspond to the build instruction files, and the models are much easier to build if the pieces aren’t all mixed together.