Innovation Project - Summer Prep Resources
Innovation Project BIOGLOW™ Summer Packet.
Table of Contents:
- What to Focus On This Summer
- Media List - Movies & Podcasts to Explore the World of Biodiversity
- For Deeper Research (Advanced / Parents)
- Scoring Rubric Explained
Back to: FIRST® LEGO® League - 2026-27
The Innovation Project is one of the three judged components of every FLL season, alongside Robot Design and Core Values. Teams are challenged to identify a real-world problem connected to the season’s theme (biodiversity and ecosystems), research it thoroughly, design an original solution, and present it live to a panel of judges.
This year’s theme BIOGLOW™ is all about biodiversity and ecosystems.
What to Focus On This Summer
Before the season starts students should try to get ahead by:
- Researching biodiversity topics they find interesting.
- Watching movies and listening to podcasts to build background knowledge.
- Identifying a problem they’re passionate about solving, the best projects start with genuine curiosity, not an assigned topic.
- Finding potential experts to interview, a local ecologist, conservation organization, or university researcher.
Media List - Movies & Podcasts to Explore the World of Biodiversity
Some good movies, documentaries, and podcasts will help introduce kids to topics, and they can then decide to deeper-dive with their whole team on it. Everything below is PG-13 or under, but parent discretion is advised.
You can always visit the Glen Rock Public Library, or any BCCLS affiliated libraries to rent any of these below.
Radiolab (Podcast)
I’m personally a big fan of Radiolab, and it has covered a plethora of topics over the years. It’s a perfect accompaniment to a long road trip, or a ride to the beach.
You can listen to Radiolab on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or original site
| Episode | Year | What It’s About |
|---|---|---|
| Zoos | 2007 | What does it mean to keep wild animals in captivity, and what do we lose or gain about biodiversity when we do? |
| Yellow Fluff and Other Curious Encounters | 2008 | Strange, unexpected moments of connection between humans and wild creatures in the ocean, and what they reveal about animal awareness. |
| Darwinvaganza | 2009 | Darwin’s own 20+ years of secret experiments before publishing: the messy, doubt-filled origin of the theory of natural selection. |
| Parasites | 2009 | Zombie cockroaches, mind-controlled humans, and lethargic farmers; parasites may be pulling the strings of life itself. |
| Animal Minds | 2010 | Can animals really think and feel? A rescued whale may say thanks, and a predator may have fallen in love with a photographer. |
| Famous Tumors / Devil Tumors | 2010 | A contagious cancer is wiping out Tasmanian Devils, and low genetic diversity from inbreeding made the whole species vulnerable. |
| Wild Talk | 2010 | Prairie dogs, dolphins, and birds may have something closer to language than we ever imagined. What are they actually saying? |
| Argentine Invasion | 2012 | A single super-colony of Argentine ants has conquered every continent except Antarctica, annihilating local species wherever they land. |
| Galápagos | 2014 | Darwin’s islands are changing fast: invasive species, hybridizing finches, and possibly real-time speciation happening right now. |
| Worth | 2014 | Bats, bees, wetlands, and coral reefs do invisible work worth $142 trillion a year. What happens when we stop paying attention? |
| CRISPR | 2015 | A defense system hiding in bacteria for millions of years may let us rewrite DNA, and possibly resurrect extinct species. |
| From Tree to Shining Tree | 2016 | Underground fungal networks connect entire forests, letting trees share nutrients, send danger signals, and support dying neighbors. |
| Forests on Forests | 2022 | Tree canopies, long ignored by science, turn out to be entire ecosystems: sky gardens teeming with life above the forest floor. |
| The Honeybee Algorithm | 2024 | Honeybee foraging behavior inspired a solution to internet server crashes, with biodiversity encoded into the architecture of the web. |
| Bees | 2024 | Dr. Sammy Ramsey travels to Bangladesh to find how overlooked wild bee species might hold the key to saving honeybees worldwide. |
| Signal Hill: Caterpillar Roadshow | 2025 | Heartwarming and scientific story of an unexpected collaboration between a professional entomologist and a young boy. |
| Hookworms | 2026 | Could removing worms from human guts have caused a surge in autoimmune disease? A 118-year journey from villain to potential cure. |
| Swimming with Shadows: A Week of Sharks | 2026 | Five-episode series shattering shark myths: glowing sharks, flying sharks, baby sharks, and shark antibodies that may cure cancer. |
Documentaries
| Title | Year | Rating | Theme(s) | Where to Watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planet Earth (Series) | 2006 | TV-G | Global ecosystems, species diversity, migration, human impact | Max / Peacock |
| Planet Earth II | 2016 | TV-G | Human impact on biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, conservation | Max |
| Planet Earth III | 2023 | TV-G | Human impact on biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, conservation | Max |
| Island of Lemurs: Madagascar | 2014 | G | Island biodiversity, endangered species, primate conservation | Available to rent |
| Jane | 2017 | PG-13 | Primatology, wildlife conservation, human-animal relationships | Disney+ / Nat Geo |
| Our Planet | 2019 | TV-G | Global biodiversity, habitat loss, climate change, conservation | Netflix |
| Fantastic Fungi | 2019 | NR | Fungal ecosystems, mycelium networks, biodiversity underground | Netflix / Kanopy |
YouTube
| Channels | Link | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Kurzgesagt | World War Ant | Talks about ants and their war with each other |
Podcasts
You can listen to most podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or original site
| Podcast | Age Range | Episodes to Start With |
|---|---|---|
| Terrestrials (by Radiolab) | All ages | “From Tree to Shining Tree” (fungal forest networks); “Woolly Aphids” |
| Brains On! | Ages 6-12 | Search: “ecosystems,” “bees,” “forests” |
| Earth Rangers | Ages 6-12 | Any episode; all are conservation-focused |
| Ologies with Alie Ward The original Ologies episodes have curse words. |
Ages 12+ | • Melittology (bees) • Ornithology (birds) • Cheloniology (sea turtles) • Conservation Technology • Critical Ecology • Aquaculture Ecology • Macrophycology (seaweed) |
| The Infinite Monkey Cage (BBC) | Ages 13+ | • “Is Extinction the End?” (de-extinction, woolly mammoths, ecosystem restoration) • Bees vs Wasps |
| Mongabay Newscast | Ages 13+ | Current episodes; all cover real biodiversity news |
Biosphere 2 (University of Arizona)
Background: In 1991, eight people sealed themselves inside Biosphere 2, a 7.2-million-cubic-foot glass facility in Oracle, Arizona. Containing a rainforest, savannah, coral reef ocean, desert, farm, and over 3,800 species, they stayed for two years. It remains the most biodiverse closed ecological system ever built, and is now a University of Arizona research facility studying climate, ecosystems, and space habitation.
| Episode | Year | What It’s About |
|---|---|---|
| Rainforest Research at Biosphere 2 | 2021 | Research director Joost Van Haren explains how the sealed rainforest biome is used to study carbon cycling, water cycling, and drought. |
| Giant Clams & Coral Reef Ecology | 2022 | Researcher Dan Killam studies giant clams inside Biosphere 2’s ocean to decode how coral reefs record climate history in their shells. |
| Marine Biodiversity & Reef Conservation | 2022 | Dr. Stuart Sandin of Scripps Institution of Oceanography discusses Caribbean reef decline and tech mapping reef biodiversity over time. |
| SAM: Space Analog for Moon & Mars | 2023 | Kai Staats explains SAM, a sealed Mars habitat with greenhouse and airlock built at Biosphere 2, where space biodiversity is tested. |
| Engineering the Original Biosphere 2 | 2023 | Bill Dempster, the original systems engineer, explains how you actually build a closed ecosystem, and what they got catastrophically wrong. |
Other Podcasts on Biosphere 2
| Episode | Podcast | Year | What It’s About |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biosphere 2: The Theater of Utopia | Nice Try! | 2019 | Eight people, five biomes, two years sealed inside. What actually happened, and was it really a failure? One mild language note. |
| Two Years and 20 Minutes Inside Biosphere 2 | Stuff To Blow Your Mind | 2018 | Tours the facility’s five biomes (3,000 species from scorpions to coral reefs) and what unraveled when nature refused to cooperate. |
| Living in Biosphere 2 | Here We Are | 2024 | Dr. Mark Nelson, a founding Biospherian and director of the Institute of Ecotechnics, recounts two years living inside the sealed world. |
| Biosphere 2: The Grand Experiment That Could Not Breathe | The Compendium | 2026 | Oxygen dropped, CO₂ swung wildly, food was scarce; Biosphere 2 proved how impossibly complex Earth’s life-support systems actually are. |
Movies
| Title | Year | Rating | Theme(s) | Where to Watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hoppers | 2026 | PG | Wetland ecosystems, habitat loss, biodiversity, species interdependence, human vs. nature | Disney+ |
| FernGully: The Last Rainforest | 1992 | G | Rainforest biodiversity, deforestation, pollution, habitat destruction | Amazon Prime Video |
| Hoot | 2006 | PG | Endangered species, habitat protection, youth activism, conservation | Amazon Prime Video |
| The Lorax | 2012 | PG | Deforestation, ecosystem collapse, natural resource conservation, sustainability | Peacock |
| Rio | 2011 | G | Endangered species, animal trafficking, tropical biodiversity, rainforest | Disney+ |
| Happy Feet | 2006 | PG | Antarctic ecosystem, overfishing, ocean pollution, plastic waste, climate impact | Max |
| WALL-E | 2008 | G | Habitat destruction, pollution, human consumption, ecosystem collapse | Disney+ |
| Bambi | 1942 | G | Forest ecosystems, wildlife survival, human impact on nature | Disney+ |
| Pom Poko (Studio Ghibli) |
1994 | PG | Urban development vs. wildlife habitat, species displacement, conservation | Max |
For Deeper Research (Advanced / Parents)
| Podcast | Platform | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Inside Biodiversity | Apple · Spotify | In-depth conversations with leading biodiversity researchers on species extinctions, ecosystem resilience, and conservation policy. Launched 2025. |
| Rewilding Earth | Apple · Spotify | Conservationists, biologists, and activists working on wilderness restoration and species reintroduction. |
Everything on this list will help students with identify a problem and put a starting point for their research. The podcasts especially are great for finding an expert to interview, many episode guests are university professors, field scientists, and conservationists who are active in public outreach and often willing to speak with student teams.
By no means this is an exhaustive list, there are tons of other resources out there. If you have a suggestion to add to the list, please send us an email, and we’ll be happy to include it.
Scoring Rubric Explained
The project is evaluated across five criteria, and a four-level scale:
- Identify: Team had a clearly defined problem that was well researched.
- Design: Team worked together while creating a project plan and developing their ideas.
- Create: Team developed an original idea or built on an existing one, with a prototype model or drawing to represent their solution.
- Iterate: Team shared their ideas with others, collected feedback, and included improvements to their solution.
- Communicate: Team shared an effective presentation of their solution, its impact on others, and celebrated their team’s progress.
One key requirement students often underestimate: Sharing the solution with real people outside the team, ideally an expert in the field. This separates a “Developing” team from an “Accomplished” team. The Innovation Project is also where Core Values (teamwork, discovery, inclusion, innovation, impact, and fun) are evaluated, making up 25% of a team’s overall Champion’s score.