Congratulations Champions, Lots of Announcements

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

In this post you will find:

1. Championship Recap and Thank you
2. Winners Lists
3. FIRST LEGO League table in Hood River
4. What your team should be doing now
5. Teacher EV3 learning opportunity March 18
6. Photos from the State Championship - NEW LINK
7. ODE FIRST Grant may not be available for 2017-2018

1) Championship Recap and Thank you

Thank you, everyone, for an amazing ANIMAL ALLIES season! We overcame the winter, we built amazing robots, and teams presented remarkable innovative solutions! This all came together at the Intel Oregon Championship Tournaments presented by Rockwell Collins and I am incredibly impressed by all of the teams I have seen this season. Whether your team just figured out how to get the LEGO technic pieces together, or you've been together 5 years building and innovating your way to bigger and newer solutions, it is obvious that we have a lot to look forward to next season!

We had 113 of our 450 FIRST LEGO League Oregon teams compete. Nearly 175 volunteers each day made our event special for everyone who attended. Thank you everyone who participated this season, and especially those of you who helped or participated at the state championships!

2) Winners Lists

Congratulations to all of our award winners!

Saturday

Sunday

Teams 11687 The Pandroids from Hood River and 1833 The G.E.A.R.S. from West Linn/Tualatin will represent Oregon at the FIRST World Festival in Houston Texas, April 19-22nd.
Teams 16182 Brainiacs with Blue, 6493 Robotek Xtreme, 96 Gears In Motion from Portland, and 6246 Full STEAM from Wilsonville have been invited to represent Oregon at the North America Open at LEGOLAND California, The Razorback Open at the University of Arkansas, and the Mountain State Open with NASA at Fairmont University in West Virginia.
Teams 2242 Bananas to Bats and 13557 The Meme Team were invited to submit their innovative solutions to the ANIMAL ALLIES challenge to the Global Innovation Award sponsored by X-Prize.

Good luck to all of Oregon's continuing teams!

3) FIRST LEGO League table in Hood River

Chana, in Hood River, has a table that needs a new team to give it a home. If your team needs a table for the coming HYDRO DYNAMICS season please email -see email for address-

4) What your team should be doing now
Many teams have already started organizing for next year.
Even if your team isn't actively meeting please work on these tasks - you will be thankful in the fall if you do!

• Fundraising - decide who, where, and what!
• Recruiting - both new team members and mentors
• Decide your team structure, some teams are growing and may need to become two or more teams!
• Set a meeting schedule
• Plan to attend an ORTOP workshop this summer, make sure your team parents are invited!
• Learn new programming and building techniques - there are lots of fun challenges around the internet your team can do, or make up your own! Feel free to share it with us in the comments or on Facebook!
• Schools - now is the best time to recruit and get the team member commitment forms (if you use them) sent out for next year's teams!

5) Teacher EV3 learning opportunity March 18

There are still a few spaces for Oregon teachers looking to learn more. This workshop will get you programming the EV3 brick with touch and light sensors.  This curriculum that is working well to teach students programming and incorporate NGSS and other standards. Sign up online with Eventbrite or go to the main page to learn more.

6) Photos from the state championships - NEW LINK
ORTOP recently moved all of the state championship photos to a new service. We are also in the process of closing our account with Zenfolio as we will not need it any longer. Please find the photos at their new home. Better yet, we won't confuse you with new passwords!

7) ODE FIRST Grant may not be available for 2017-2018
For the last several years many of our public school, both after-school and in-class teams have benefited from the Oregon Department of Education FIRST Grant.  At this time, the grant is no longer in the state budget. If your school benefited from this award, or wanted to, please make that known! This document has some suggestions to help you get started.

I know some teachers are counting on this award opportunity, so please be aware this is happening. ORTOP is doing it's best to approach sponsors, both continuing and new, to continue to offer Team Financial Support Awards, however; we do not have promised funds to cover all teams at this time. If your employer or friends would like to support FIRST LEGO League in Oregon, now is a great time to get started!

My apologies for this post being so long. My inbox became very popular this week!

Best Wishes,
Loridee

Oregon Champions Announcement 9: Paperwork, Parking, and Schedules

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Champions,

Please read ALL of these items:

1. Paperwork for Check-in
2. Parking Instructions
3. LIVE STREAM SURVEY
4. Detailed Schedules

1) Paperwork for Check-in

Nothing is ever official without paperwork. For some teams a lot has changed since December, for others, it's pretty much the same. Either way, I need paperwork from everyone! 

At Team Check-in (at 8am) through the Main Entrance of Glencoe High School the COACH needs these items to check-in the team. 

• The FIRST Team Roster - as printed from the online system. This is required even if your team is using paper forms. This must be printed BEFORE your team arrives.
• Additional Consent forms for any Coach/Chaperones and team members who are not in the electronic system. This includes Teen Mentor Helper who have requested a badge. No one will be allowed in the pit without their form turned in!  Paper consent forms must be signed by a parent or legal guardian for all minors.
• Anyone with a paper consent form, must be legibly handwritten onto the the FIRST Team Roster printout.

What if I have different chaperone's, or a new coach of the day?

They must appear on the roster, either through the FIRST system as a mentor, or by being hand-written on and signing a consent form. 

I have a teen mentor helper, but they just turned 14 and FIRST won't let them in as a mentor. 

Any mentor's helper or 14-year-old who works with the team, who was not 14 before January 2016 is a TEAM MEMBER. Even if they are on a FIRST Tech Challenge team. Their role on the team is to lead and mentor younger team members. 

We merged teams, added new members, etc.

New team members need to be added to the Team Roster and have the appropriate consent forms. Your team MAY NOT have more than 10 team members, 11 is too many, 12 is right out.

Ok, I read everything, now where do I get forms?

Your official FIRST Team Roster is available the two coaches only from their FIRST Dashboard.

• As a coach login to www.firstinspires.org (upper right corner)
• Select the team that is going to state (if you have more than one) using the down arrow on the right side of the screen by the team name.
• Go to Team Contacts
• Make sure everything is correct and print the roster (honestly this part is a bit of a mystery to me as I'm not a coach). 

The Adult Paper Consent Forms can be downloaded here

The Team Member Paper Consent Forms can be downloaded here

The Spanish Language Team Member Paper Consent Forms are here

PLEASE MAKE SURE THE COACH IS THE ONLY ONE WHO STANDS IN LINE TO CHECK IN THE TEAM. Team members can wait for their coach to check-in in the hallway or cafeteria. Teams can not go to the pit area until the coach has completed check-in and given each member their wristband and sticker.

2) Parking Instructions

There is a large parking lot at Glencoe High School where team's can park. IT IS NOT on the same side as the entrance. To help make things easier, teams may unload their equipment in the small lot on the Southwest side of the school, but the drivers MUST drive to the North parking lot to park. The Southwest lot will be used by our Sponsors, VIPs and short visit guests. Please respect this request so that we may showcase the team's work to the public, and keep working to keep the cost of the program down for all teams. 

Once you park in the North Parking lot (right across the street from the shopping center) near the tennis courts or the football field, please walk along the West side of the building to reach the main entrance. Parents who drive kids separately are also asked to park in the North parking lot. If you are by the baseball field you are on the South side of the school. Both entrances have a stoplight.

3) LIVE STREAM SURVEY

At this time only 35 teams have replied to the live stream survey. I need 113 teams to reply to authorize a live stream of the event. Having a live stream is beneficial for our teams from South Oregon and Eastern Oregon, as well as team members with family in other states. However, there are safety concerns with having a live stream and our lawyer will not let me proceed without 100% response. Please check with every parent before answering

Please complete this 3-minute survey today!

Thank you teams, 6246, 19025, 19023, 11326, 28895, 26570, 18225, 96, 27480, 24810, 3163, 16188, 26425, 17074, 19940, 14025, 7699, 24456, 2657, 9568, 18585, 21641, 12416, 15769, 8241, 8654, 13557, 27751, 1833, 17659, 28161, 23871, 11687, 28968, and 8317 for responding already!

4) Detailed Schedules

For your team's convenience, Detailed Schedules for both days have been posted BY TEAM NUMBER. You can download them from the Tournament Website. They are pdf files designed to print on very large paper, so you may need to resize them if you want to print them. 

Your team will be given a schedule that just lists their events as part of the team check-in.

This is a great time to give the Project judging to the up to 10 adults (space is limited) who you would like to witness the Project judging, from behind the team. It is also a good idea to plan your lunch break as it will be slightly different for each team. Each team should have one 30 minute break during the day, but it may not be during the traditional lunch time. If you are ordering lunch from Jersey Girl Pizza, make sure you have a parent to pick up the items and that you tell them the time you will be having your lunch break. Parents can walk to Jersey Girl Pizza using the cross-walk by the North parking lot entrance. 

I know this is a lot, and I'm verbose. This is going to be a great weekend. Good luck to all your teams!

Best Wishes,
Loridee