HD19: Good Luck Worlds Teams

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

In this update, you will find:

1. Oregon Teams at the World Festival
2. Are You Interested in a Local Meetup?
3. Table Needs a New Home
4. Help Needed APRIL 23 from 5:30- 8:00pm at OMSI
5. What is Happening at ORTOP
6. Official Preview for INTO ORBIT on APRIL 18

Use this link to read this update as a blog post

Oregon Update: 19

Welcome to the official FIRST LEGO League Oregon Update. All Oregon FIRST LEGO League Coaches are automatically added to this list weekly! In each update, which you can read in an email or on our blog (cross-posted on both G+ and Facebook), you will find out what is happening in Oregon, the important things from Headquarters in NH, and tips to keep your team on track. This blog will be posted nearly weekly and all posts are archived. All official updates this season will be numbered HD# If you've missed an update, please read the archive to catch up!

1) Oregon Teams at the World Festival

ORTOP would like to wish the best of luck to all of the teams representing Oregon at the World Festival next week in Houston, TX. If you would like to see the competitions all events will be available by the live stream: https://www.firstchampionship.org/watch-live

FIRST LEGO League Teams

• 11688 Pink Fluffy Unicorns from Wyeast Middle School in Hood River
• 15701 The Fearless Builders from the Bethany Neighborhood in Portland

FIRST Tech Challenge Teams

• 7750 Mechanical Maniacs from 4-H in Sutherlin
• 7776 Loose Screws from Wilson High School in Portland
• 8045 Gromit's Grommets from Pleasant Hill High School in Pleasant Hill
• 8176 Steelhead from Hood River Valley High School in Hood River
• 8372 TNT (Trial N Terror) from St. Mary's in Medford
• 8610 ToborTech from Lake Oswego High School in Lake Oswego
• 8949 The Gifted Gears from Wilsonville
• 11089 Bytes of Kitkats from Portland
• 12599 Overcharged from Portland
• 12808 RevAmped Robotics from Portland

FIRST Robotics Competition Teams

• 957 SWARM from Albany
• 1425 Error Code Xero from Wilsonville
• 1540 Flaming Chickens from Portland
• 2471 Team Mean Machine from Camas WA
• 2521 SERT from Eugene 
• 2811 StormBots from Vancouver WA
• 2990 Hotwire from Turner
• 2674 4-H/CAM Academy Clover Bots from Battleground WA
• 3711 Iron Mustangs from Trout Lake WA
• 4125 Confidential from Umatilla 
• 4488 Shockwave from Hillsboro
• 5468 Chaos Theory from Bend
• 6445 CTEC Robotics from Salem
• 6831 A-05 Annex from Hood River
• 7034 2B Determined from West Linn

Good luck Oregon teams in this international competition!

2) Are You Interested in a Local Meetup?

Would your team like to be part of a local FIRST LEGO League "league"? The idea of having scrimmages and meet-ups has been proposed by several coaches and after seeing how helpful the process is for FIRST Tech Challenge teams Coach Jesse at Eagle Creek Elementary in Eagle Creek would like to form a group of 3-6 teams who would like to meet up periodically throughout the INTO ORBIT season. Jesse suggests teams be located in Estacada, Sandy, Boring, Barton, Redland, or even Colton, Oregon City, or Clackamas to join this league. If that sounds like your team, please reach out to Jesse at <email version only>

Would you like to organize a "league" in your community? Please let me know and I'll gladly add a Join a League section to our monthly newsletter!

3) Table Needs a New Home

Another FIRST LEGO League team needs to make room for FIRST Tech Challenge next year. To do so their table needs a new home. If you are starting a new FIRST LEGO League team and would like to come collect the table from Beaverton near Bonny Slope, please contact Rama at  <email version only>  This is the wooden practice table that the INTO ORBIT challenge can be added to next year.

4) Help Needed APRIL 23 from 5:30- 8:00pm at OMSI

Join ORTOP and Girl Scouts at OMSI to help girls from around the Pacific Northwest complete their Robotics Badge. Ten team member volunteers with knowledge of FIRST LEGO League are needed to talk with Girl Scouts about FIRST LEGO League and what it is like to be on a robotics team. We will be providing steps 3 and 4 of the badge requirements as seen here. Volunteers can be members of a FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge, or FIRST Robotics Competition team. A FIRST LEGO League table with HYDRO DYNAMICS will be set up if your team would like to demonstrate their robot. Please email Loridee-Wetzel@ortop.org with the Subject: Girl Scouts at OMSI to let me know you are interested in helping with this event. 

5) What is Happening at ORTOP

We are working on several exciting projects for this summer and next season. It's been very hard to keep some of them under wraps so here is a bit of what we are working on!

• Team Financial Support - getting ready to open in May to ensure your team is ready to start  INTO ORBIT as soon as possible.
• ORTOP is working with OMSI to recruit speakers who are INTO ORBIT experts. Our expert nights will be in October at OMSI and we are looking for help live streaming these events. Stay tuned for names, dates, and times.
•  ORTOP is looking for more sponsors to help fund our programs and to fund teams for the coming season. If you have a connection we should talk with, please let us know! We'd love to include your business.
• FIRST LEGO League Workshops will return in June! The schedule should be up in May and we are looking for towns that are interested in hosting 1-day workshops, please see our workshop page to sign up and for details!
• This is just the beginning of our off-season excitement! Keep an eye out as we will be looking for teams for outreach and other fun activities!

6) Official Preview for INTO ORBIT on APRIL 18

FIRST will be hosting a sneak preview on twitch. If your team wants to see what to expect for MISSION MOON or INTO ORBIT please feel free to tune in to www.twitch.tv/firstinspires on Wednesday, April 18 at 2 p.m. This is not a full release, but some models may be seen!

I hope all of your teams are having a great off-season and are working hard on learning new things and perfecting their teamwork.  If your team is continuing work on their innovative solutions, please let us know! We would love to feature your product and accomplishments - especially if your idea is on it's way to becoming a reality.

Best Wishes,
Loridee