Thursday, March 16, 2017

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!
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

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