Tournament Registration and Judging Update

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon. I apologize for the delay in communication as I have been out sick. I hope this helps some of you catch up and look for more posts soon!

1. Registration Extended due to illness!
2. Tournament Registration Status 
3. Oops! I need to change our name
4. NEW Project Rubric will be piloted in Oregon
5. More updates from the Oregon Judges

1)  Registration Extended due to illness!

Due to a recent illness, the tournament registration has been extended until NOON on Saturday, October 15, 2016 If you have not yet registered your ANIMAL ALLIES team for this season please do so TODAY! Even if your team has is still waiting on a FIRST YPP to finish your national registration. Please fill out an application for your team. Please pay your Tournament Registration Fee. Your team MUST be nationally registered to participate in a tournament, so do not forget to finish that process even if you are still waiting with FIRST!

2)  Tournament Registration Status 

Please check the tournament registration status page to see if we have received your registration for your team and your team payment. Please keep in mind that these items are updated manually through multiple systems. If it has been less than 24 hours (or its the weekend) please do not expect an update to occur. The page update is about 2 days back on payments right now. We are updating the systems as we are able. If you paid or registered before the time of the last update (posted in the yellow box at the top), feel free to contact with questions. 

Tournament Assignments will also be posted on this page By NOVEMBER 7.

3)  Oops! I need to change our name

If the tournament registration status page has the incorrect team name for my team how do I fix it? This is not as easy of a fix as you might think. The registration from survey monkey is what is sent to the tournament directors so to change your team name after it's been submitted takes a little work. Because so many of you are requesting this I have created a form for you to use. Please do not expect it to show up on the status page right away, as all changes have to sent through the entire ORTOP system.

Please have ALL Changes in BEFORE  October 17.  Thank you.

4)  NEW Project Rubric will be piloted in Oregon

FIRST has invited Oregon to pilot the new Project Presentation Rubric. Our judges are very excited about this new rubric, but it is NOT the one posted on www.firstinspires.org. The new rubric can be found on the FIRST LEGO League Oregon website. The updated rubric has an increased focus on the process of developing the Project and includes the following changes:

• The Sources of Information criteria now more clearly reflects the need for quality sources and a wide variety of sources.  Teams must consult professionals in fields relating to their topic to be at the Accomplished or Exemplary levels.
• The Review Existing Solutions criteria has been combined with Problem Analysis and Innovation.  Teams are still expected to review and analyze existing solutions.
• When teams are describing their Team Solution, they are now expected to describe how it solves the problem.
• The new Solution Development criteria encompasses the previous Implementation criteria. Teams should explain how they developed the solution, considered and narrowed alternative solutions, evaluated and improved the solution they chose, and assessed feasibility and implementation factors.

While the update will shift what teams should share with Judges, we do not expect it to have much impact on the work teams are doing for the FIRST LEGO League Project.  Teams who are working toward the Accomplished and Exemplary levels for Solution Development may choose to spend more designing their process than they did before, in order to ensure it is systematic and includes some type of evaluation or verification of their solution.

5)  More updates from the Oregon Judges

If your team has read the challenge manual, which is highly recommended for every team member to do! Your team should have noticed the Core Values Poster and Robot Design Executive Summary. You will also have read that these items are not required in all regions. In Oregon, as in the year's past, both of these items are required at the state championship. However, new this year we will be allowing Core Value Posters at the Qualifying Tournaments. They are NOT required, but if your team would like to make one they may bring it into the judging room and it will be considered by the judges. 

Our Oregon Head Robot Design Judge would also like you to know that the Robot Design Executive Summary is a great way to prepare for robot design judging. This short presentation breaks the ice with judges. It also helps teams to share the unique aspects of their robot, programming, and game strategy. The Executive Summary must be short! It should include 1 robot run that the team would like to use to highlight their robot and programming. The summary should not be longer than 1-2 minutes and should be considered the ice-breaker the team starts with as they enter the judging room.

Since I have been out sick I am terribly behind on email and voicemails. Please have patience. If I address your issue in this blog do NOT expect an email. If I have not addressed your issue please email again next week. I am doing my best to make sure all of you get your questions answered, but am hoping that today's blog covers some of the most common questions.

Best Wishes,

Loridee