Hi Kelly,
Oh yes, they are definitely useful!  You can never ever have too many LEGOs!  We add our model pieces into the bin and they get reused to make all kinds of things, to build the robot, to make attachments, to build models for your research presentation, for Core Values challenges, to build aligners, and more.  You will find lots of great pieces in previous year kits.  Also, if any of the models are still even partially together and have any moving parts, have the team members examine them closely and see how the moving parts work.  The gears, etc, and how they go together may give them some ideas of how they might want to use moving parts on their robot or in their attachments.  

We also have a separate large Rubbermaid bin of LEGOs that we use for outreach and when we do workshops and activities at the library for example.  So that is a good use for some of them too.

There is also an FRC team, Sparky, that collects previous year's kits or any LEGOs and runs programs for kids in Richmond, Haiti, and now other countries too.  You can read about them here:

http://va-dcfll.org/helping-lego-teams-in-developing-countries/

You could donate any you don't need to them.

Good luck!

Sonya
Coach of the Brick Dawgs


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