IO16: It's Not Over Until It's Documented in Triplicate.

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

In today's FIRST LEGO League Oregon Update we will cover these items:

1. Coach End of Season Survey (Required for some coaches)
2. FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship
3. What the Theme Contest?
4. FIRST Robotics Competition in Oregon
5. Stories of the Season!
6. Share FIRST LEGO League at the Junior Expo!
7. Lents Fair August Outreach

Use this link to read this update as a blog post

  If you are new to this email or blog this is the place where you will find all of the OREGON specific FIRST LEGO League information. If you are in the FIRST Dashboard as a team coach of a registered team for INTO ORBIT you will be added to this list every week for the rest of the competition season. Every update this season begins with IO (Into Orbit) and a number, that number lets you know which update it is, if you miss an update you can find it on our blog.

1) Coach End of Season Survey

REQUIRED for ORTOP Team Support Coaches!

Thank you to the 15 coaches who have taken the estimated 30 mins to complete the INTO ORBIT Season Coach Survey for Oregon. Please take the time to let us know what is working well, what is not working, and most importantly, help ORTOP understand how your team functions. Work has already begun in the planning and fundraising for next season and could use your feedback! The survey does use skip logic so you will not answer every question!

--- PLEASE COMPLETE THIS 30 MIN SURVEY ABOUT YOUR COACH & TEAM EXPERIENCE ---

If your team received ORTOP Team Support funds that covered some of your costs this year, you are required to complete this survey!

2) FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship

Sunday, March 10th at Liberty High School in Hillsboro the best 64 FIRST Tech Challenge teams in Oregon will compete in the state championship. FIRST Tech Challenge is a 7th-12th grade, High School, robotics program. It is one of the options for FIRST LEGO League teams when they age out of the LEGO programs.

Opening Ceremonies will begin at 9am followed by 4 fields of Robot Gameplay taking up the entirety of the gymnasium. Random match play is scheduled to conclude at 2:30 PM, but the elimination rounds (which count in FIRST Tech Challenge) will begin at 3:00 PM and are always good to watch. A schedule of events, live scores, and Livestream information can be found here.

If you would rather be a volunteer, FIRST LEGO League teams can serve as Field Reset and adults can serve in a variety of roles!

Safety glasses are required to enter the public pit area.

Is your team looking to move up to FIRST Tech Challenge next year? FIRST Tech Challenge Jumpstart is still available for teams to get their hands on FIRST Tech Challenge materials to practice over the summer, and it covers next year's National Registration fee!

3) What the Theme Contest?

We are impatiently waiting out the cold void between FIRST LEGO League themes that we find ourselves facing due to an unpredictable theme vortex that has enveloped all of FIRST headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire. To ease the anguish while we wait, I have created a contest just for FIRST LEGO League Oregon teams! Join in the guessing fun on our blog & our Facebook post! One team will win big and we'll all be ready to celebrate when the cone of silence is lifted!  Includes the FIRST Official teaser for the coming season.

Currently in the contest are teams: 3724,  41800, 40955, and 41803 - great guesses teams!

4) FIRST Robotics Competition in Oregon

FIRST Robotics Competition events will be in full swing for the month of March. Oregon will host 3
competitions and all of them are free and open to the public.

• Wilsonville High School - March 7-9 (parking and a shuttle is available from Mentor Graphics)
• Clackamas Academy of Industrial Arts (CAIS) - March 14-16 in Oregon City
• Lake Oswego High School - March 28-30

FIRST Robotics Competition is a High School competition for teams to do a rapid build along with their adult mentors and compete on a basketball court-sized arena. Competitions last for 3 days, but the best days to watch the robot action are on Friday afternoon and Saturday. The pit area is open to the public, but safety glasses are required in this space.

Rather volunteer than watch? FIRST Robotics Competition is looking for volunteers for all their events, but especially Oregon City's event right now!

Find the link to the live streams on Friday and Saturday at http://firstwa.org/

5) Stories of the Season!

Every year, I LOVE to hear your team's stories of the season! It's time again to share your team's experience; those learning moments, the big ah-ha, the struggle that felt impossible, and those frustrations that only coaches understand. Please consider taking the time to write it up and send it to me, the good, the bad, and the ugly! I'd love to share your good (publicly or anonymously) with other coaches and in our summer advice column. The more of you that share the better I can prepare incoming coaches and our returning coaches alike!

Not a coach, but a volunteer or FIRST LEGO League supporter with a story to share? Your stories are just as important and just as welcome! Don't let not being a coach stop you from sharing what made a difference for you in FIRST LEGO League.

Please send your stories with the subject "Stories of the Season" to Loridee-Wetzel@ortop.org

6) Share FIRST LEGO League at the Junior Expo!

FIRST LEGO League teams are needed to demonstrate their robot, share their project, and FIRST Core Values at the FIRST LEGO League Jr expos in Oregon. There are currently 6 expos planned around the state and I hope to add a 7th on Friday. Please sign up on this form for any expo your team is able to share at! Teams will be contacted to know which expo they are needed at. If there is enough interest we will have 2 teams per expo!
demonstrate

FIRST LEGO League Jr Expos in Oregon:

Asteroid Expo	April 13, 2018, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm	OMSI Auditorium
Black Hole Expo	April 13, 2018, 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm	OMSI Auditorium
Comet Expo	April 14, 2019, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm	OMSI Auditorium
Dark Matter Expo	April 14, 2019, 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm	OMSI Auditorium
Escape Velocity Expo	April 27, 2019, 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm	Hood River County Library
Flyby Expo	May 18, 2019, 10:00am – 1:00pm	UCC Steam Extravaganza, Roseburg

7) Lents Fair August Outreach

FIRST Robotics Competition team 1432 Metal Beavers would like to invite some FIRST LEGO League teams to join them at the Lents Fair this August. If you are near Lents this is a tremendous opportunity for your team to make a presence in your neighborhood! If you aren't in the neighborhood this is a good opportunity to make FIRST loud! If your team is interested in this opportunity (even if they will be going into FIRST Tech Challenge next year -  it's a great Motivate Opportunity!), please contact team1432metalbeavers@gmail.com.

Thank you all for continuing to be the amazing coaches, volunteers, and FIRST LEGO League enthusiasts you are! I'd love to wrap up the INTO ORBIT season, so coaches - please go do that survey in item 1 so we can get all ready for whatever the new season will bring (and get workshops scheduled!). I'm already looking forward to another amazing Oregon FIRST LEGO League season!

Best Wishes,
Loridee