JULY NEWS, Summer Research is a Splash!

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

In this mid-summer newsletter you will find:

1. Coach, Mentor, and Parent Workshops
2. Applying for Team Financial Support UPDATE
3. Teams Needed to Help with Demonstrations
4. Team Members and Mentors are Invited to Join SWE!
5. What Should My Team Be Doing Now?
6. FIRST LEGO League Summer Camps
7. Save the Date! KICKOFF August 29!

Read this email as a blog post

1)  Coach, Mentor, and Parent Workshops
ORTOP Coach Mentor and Parent Workshops are up and running around the state! In July, we have workshops in Hillsboro and Bend. In August, there are coach, mentor, and parent workshops in LaGrande, Portland, and Beaverton. In September, workshops are scheduled for Portland, Hillsboro, Hood River, Salem, and Oregon City. We are also working on a date for a workshop in Roseburg.

Register Online to attend a free workshop!

Who should attend?

• Parents interested in learning more about what their kids are doing. 
• Coaches who have not attended in the last 3 years. 
• Teens who are interested in mentoring a team - FIRST LEGO League has some significant differences from the high school level FIRST programs. Must be over 14 years of age!
• Any adult who would like to improve their skills or meet other coaches in their local area should attend!

Don't see a workshop nearby? If there is enough interest and a volunteer available we will do our best to add a one day workshop. Please enter your name on our request page. When we have enough requests we work with you to bring a workshop to your town.

Are you a teacher who has attended our workshop this year? Please email Loridee-Wetzel@ortop.org to receive a PDU certificate.

2) Applying for Team Financial Support UPDATE

ORTOP is accepting requests for team financial support. Each team needs to complete their own application. ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE COMPLETED BY A COACH. This does not need to be the coach who meets with the team every meeting, but it must be a person who reads the emails and facilitates the team, and ensures the team is meeting the new team goals outlined in the emails to experience their own successes at the December event.

--Apply online here--

Please complete an ORTOP application today! Teams who apply early will be more likely to be considered for funding from our sponsors like Intel and Rockwell Collins.

Please remember, ORTOP can not reimburse teams who have already paid their registration fees! If your team has paid your 2017 HYDRO DYNAMICS registration please list it as already paid on your application. Your team will still be eligible for consideration for other award items. We are looking for teams who are already actively fundraising and prepared for a successful season!

Looking for another funding option for your team? AIAA and Boeing are offering FIRST grants for FIRST LEGO League teams! The applications are due August 1! AIAA and Boeing are offering $500 for new teams and $250 for returning teams. Classroom teachers can join AIAA for free for one year as an educator!  Thank you, Mark Gullickson coach of team Fin-tastic Fish for sharing this resource!

Have you found a good funding resource you'd like to share with the community? Please email it to Loridee-Wetzel@ortop.org

3) Teams Needed to Help with Demonstrations

ORTOP will be sharing FIRST LEGO League with our sponsor BPA August 15-18th from 11:30-1pm. We are looking for teams to help show real FIRST LEGO League robots and what this program means to our students. If your team is available to share at either the Portland or Vancouver location please email Loridee-Wetzel@ortop.org. Please specify which days would work for your team and whether you can showcase FIRST LEGO League in Portland or Vancouver. If you your team is interested in learning more about BPA while participating in the demonstration we would be happy to help facilitate.


4) Team Members and Coaches/Mentors are Invited to Join SWE!

Society of Women Engineers is welcoming all FIRST LEGO League students (team members under 13 do need parental permission) to join Society of Women Engineers's NEXT. This is a great way to get connected into the future engineering community. Team members can join now.  Mentors and Educators are welcome to join at the educator rate, where they will also be eligible for professional development grants. 

5) What Should My Team Be Doing Now?
If your team is available to meet over the summer, and I am hearing reports of several school teams

starting already, here is what your team should be doing.

• Embrace FIRST Core Values. Have some fun this summer by spending quality time learning and applying the FIRST Core Values through fun team activities, outreach, and field trips. A solid foundation with FIRST Core Values will be a huge asset for your team in the HYDRO DYNAMICS season. 
• Start investigating HYDRO DYNAMICS, the team can do this together or use a collaborative online tool to organize their ideas about this theme. What do you already know? Visit the FIRST LEGO League website, watch the video, make some guesses, and keep an eye on the official FIRST social media sites for clues. There may even be Oregon specific clues on our Facebook page. Having general knowledge in the subject area will make it easier for your team to identify a problem in September. 
• Identify a HYDRO DYNAMIC site for a field trip. Or team day-cation! Are some team members going to be somewhere they can investigate HYDRO DYNAMICS while on their vacation? Have them take video or notes for the team to share at the next team meeting. 
• Ready to get out of the water? What is something your team wasn't able to do with the robot last year? Is the team still using the basic robot build to start their design? July and August are great months to experiment with new robot designs, attachment configurations, and programming techniques. 
• Build a programming library for the team to use. In professional programming environments, teams use libraries with chunks of code that can be used repeatedly. In MINDSTORMS this ability is available with MyBlocks. If your team found themselves using the same series of blocks over and over again to make the robot do routine tasks, it's time to try a MyBlock that all of the team members can use!
• Don't forget fundraising! Oregon is expecting a lot of visitors in August, there are many fundraising opportunities for teams of all sizes!
• Most of all, teams should be having fun!

Coaches before September make sure:

• You have applied for Team Financial Support if your team needs assistance (getting this done sooner is better as we hope to have the first set of letters out in early to mid-August.)
• Register your team with FIRST and update your FIRST profile for the new season
• Order your HYDRO DYNAMICS field kit
• Make sure your LEGO MINDSTORMS kit is in good working order, if not order additional parts
• Stock up on team snacks!
• Make sure your team laptop is up to date with the latest software from LEGO Education!
• Attend a Coach, Mentor, and Parent Workshop (if you haven't done so in the last 3 years).

6) FIRST LEGO League Summer Camps
Looking for a way for team members to improve their skills this summer? FIRST teams are offering FIRST LEGO League camps. We are collecting all the information on this handy site.

Know of a camp happening this summer? Encourage them to add it to our list with this form.


7) Save the Date! KICKOFF August 29!

FIRST LEGO League Oregon will be kicking off the HYDRO DYNAMICS season from the main stage in Columbia Hall on August 29th at the State Fair. We hope your team will join us! After kick-off a HYDRO DYNAMICS table will be available for teams to have a team meeting at the fair! Last year, teams who participated in this activity left the fair with at least one mission complete and ready for the season. There will also be an opportunity to talk with FIRST LEGO League Oregon volunteers about the game, rules, judging, and any other FIRST LEGO League Oregon question you can think of.

ORTOP recommends reusable containers

Thank you for reading all the way to the end! In an effort to keep summer emails to a minimum many items go in each month's newsletter. Newsletter frequency will pick up in August, resulting in shorter emails.

Have a wonderful summer!

Best Wishes,
Loridee