IO12: Soaring Like the Stars We Are!

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

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

1. Welcome to Tournament Week!
2. When You Aren't Flight Ready?
3. In INTO ORBIT; ADULTS & Teens Don't Touch!
4. Weather Policy Reminder - It looks like we won't need it this weekend, but here it is anyway.
5. Coach Spaced-Out Challenge, hint 1

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) Welcome to Tournament Week!

It's Finally Tournament Time! Everything you and your team member have been working so hard and

having so much fun to show off is about to happen!

Best of Luck to all the Teams Competing at:

• Eastern Oregon University in LaGrande on Dec 8
• Hood River Middle School in Hood River on Dec 8
• Parkrose Middle School in Portland on Dec 8 - I'll see you there!
• Catlin Gabel School in Portland on Dec 8 & 9 - I'll see you on the 9th!
• Intel Jones Farm in Hillsboro on Dec 8 & 9
• Hillsboro High School Evento en Español on Dec 8
• Stephens Middle School in Salem on Dec 8 & 9
• North Middle School in Grants Pass on Dec 8

If your team is competing, many resources are on your tournament page (linked above) both for the teams and the spectators. If you are volunteering at any of these events - Thank You! There would be no FIRST LEGO League in Oregon without your help!  If your team is not participating this weekend, but you are able to attend one or more of the above events, please consider attending to an event to cheer for the teams who are there and to learn from them as well. Not every team can attend an event with their cheering section, so make sure you are loud in support of all teams at every event you go to!

2) When You Aren't Flight Ready?

Your team has had MAYBE 9 weeks at this point with the INTO ORBIT challenge. Maybe this is the first time they've ever programmed. Maybe your team isn't the most gracious with one another yet, and maybe you feel like there is no way you can go to an event like this. While I haven't received as many emails from coaches pulling their hair out in frustration as I normally do, and I fully attribute that to our amazing and supportive FIRST LEGO League community - you guys are amazing, there are a some of you out there that look at your team and think, what have we really accomplished.... how can we be done?

• Step 1: YOU ARE NOT DONE!
• 😂😂😂You thought if you got the team to qualifiers that would be the end? It's really the beginning, especially if this is a new team. The qualifier is a checkpoint. This where the team members get to see what is possible. This is where inspiration sparks! If you have set reasonable goals and expectations most teams leave the event feeling psyched up and ready to work hard to do better next year or at the state championship... Don't let that energy fade away, plan to continue meeting regardless of whether your team advances.
• Step 2: REMEMBER THE TABLE IS MEANT TO TAKE 9 MONTHS
• If your team has completely solved every mission on the table - I hope their project is equally astonishing, and they are going to have a lot of fun with the judges this year sharing their remarkable accomplishment! The challenge kit is designed to take the best teams 9 months to solve in a FIRST LEGO League setting. That means your team still has a lot of challenges they haven't solved, or many they could solve in a different way, now is the opportunity to do that!
• Step 3: THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO LEARN FROM THE PROJECT
• I strongly encourage all teams to keep pursuing their project ideas. Keep testing! Learn about the US patent process. Learn about manufacturing. Send your idea to someone who can make it a reality and help them do that. Whether your team advances or not, this is an opportunity to pursue something your team has grown to love (hopefully) over the last 9 weeks, it a tremendous thing to see through to the end - wherever that may be.

Take a deep breath! Remember those kids from 9 weeks ago? You know the disorganized chaos and the goofy senses of humor? Remember how they never listened to your suggestions - but when they discover them on their own (and if they haven't yet they will at the tournament - it's like MAGIC), they felt so accomplished? Look at them now, drilled down, still goofy, but a bit more cohesive, a bit more of a team. And the robot isn't completely a pile of LEGO anymore. They really have come a long way, in such a short time.

It's time to launch and watch them soar, all on their own (with your supervision for safety of course)!

3) In INTO ORBIT; ADULTS & Teens Don't Touch!

As was stated in the last newsletter, the Core Values Observation Policy, and the FIRST LEGO League Participation Rules, the team members (meaning 4th - 8th-grade students) are the only ones who do the work! As thrilling as it would be to video all your team meetings, we did not have that opportunity, although we are trusting you - coaches and teen mentors to have kept your hands off! 

Now, we'll be watching you. We want to make sure the teams we celebrate are capable of doing all they present. We want to ensure that they are not taking credit for anyone elses work. We want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are ready to represent their team, their ideas, and maybe even their state, in FIRST LEGO League. That means, at the tournament, keep your hands in your pockets. Don't lift! Don't carry!  Leave the technology behind. Fill your hands with pom-poms. Practice your cheers! It's time to celebrate the success of the team!

You can still ask questions of your team. Like, "Hey what time is judging?" "Do you know what time it is now?" Or, "Should we really talk like that as a FIRST LEGO League team?" "Don't you think it would be safer if we stay as a group throughout the venue?" Lots of great coach questions!  Oh, don't forget my favorite! "Do you have your robot?"

4) Weather Policy Reminder - It looks like we won't need it this weekend, but here it is anyway.

• The safety of the team members and our volunteers is the most important consideration. The FIRST Affiliate Partners for Oregon (ORTOP) use that consideration to guide all decisions when deciding to cancel or delay an event.
• Oregon's FIRST Affiliate Partners (ORTOP) will cancel or delay an event using information from the US Weather Bureau to help us forecast if it would be safe for a majority of the teams/volunteers to travel to and from the event. If the site host closes their facility because of weather, health and emergency related reasons, the event will be canceled.
• Coaches and parents must always assess their own travel route for safety and make their own decision to travel. Keep it in perspective. The safety of the kids is the most important consideration. Official information site for tournament cancellations or delays.
• In addition, ORTOP and Tournament Directors will email to both the primary and emergency contact email addresses with notification or updates.
• The third method of contact is by phone using the emergency phone number provided by the coach.
• If any of this information has changed, please update your Tournament Director and ORTOP.
• Because event cancellations occur at the last moment, funds are already expended for the event, therefore, ORTOP will not refund tournament fees for canceled events.  If an event is rescheduled, teams will not be expected to pay again.
• Please note: If an event is canceled it is impossible to reschedule it. Site hosts have booked their facilities months in advance. There is no time to reschedule prior to the Championship. Advancement slots left open by an event cancellation will be assigned by lottery from teams affected by the cancellation.  
  

5) 'Coach Spaced-Out Challenge', hint 1

The word is getting out. Hidden in each IO email (since IO2) is a common theme. This theme is not FIRST LEGO League, or LEGO, but it does appear in EVERY email/blog, including this one. If you need something to do to keep you busy while your team does their thing, now is the time to start working on the list. Tell me what the one thing is in each email, and the theme, by the state championship and a form of prize and glory yet to be defined awaits you! Happy Hunting!

Do any of you careful observant coaches think you already know? Don't tell the others, but if you want to send me your partial lists, I can give you a yes or no.

Coaches and teams, if you remember nothing else about the tournament - REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN! This is a celebration of all your team, and every team there has accomplished. Our successes do not always look the same, and rarely do they include a trophy. So celebrate together. Celebrate with the other coaches who made it through check-in, because sometimes that's the biggest struggle of the day. Celebrate when no one has a meltdown, because it's a long day and the team is under the microscope for most of it. Celebrate when your team members recover from a meltdown and go on to be a contributing member of the team - meltdowns happen. Help the kids to see, that what we are accomplishing is FUN, and FUN is celebrated here - together!

Have a great tournament weekend!

Best Wishes,

Loridee