Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,
In today's FIRST LEGO League Oregon Update we will cover these items:
- How to register your FIRST LEGO League team
- Team Financial Support Get your Application in Now!
- Remembering Charlotte Van Valkenburg
- Free Table / NXT items
- Team Meeting Guide Check-in x2
- Resources - my favorites
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, as well as helpful guides to get your team through the CITY SHAPER FIRST LEGO League season. Coaches and team administrators in the FIRST system for the CITY SHAPER season will be added every Monday until March, automatically. Every update this season begins with CS (CITY SHAPER) 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) How to register your FIRST LEGO League team
It is time to finalize registration for the CITY SHAPER season here in Oregon. We are still only at half of the teams we are expecting for the year, so that may be you! Whether you are new or returning, here are the steps to get your team officially registered for the season.Log in at www.firstinspires.org (if you do not have an account, you will need to create one)
- Register your team
- If you already have a team from a previous year please reuse your previous number, even if all the kids are different.
- Update your team profile information. Choose that you must pay taxes, unless you live outside of Oregon, in which case it is marginally worth it to submit all the required paperwork.
- If you do not have a team number to reuse, use the CREATE NEW TEAM(S) option to create a team profile.
- Make sure both lead coach/mentors have been invited and accepted that invitation to the team.
- Do the same for any additional mentors you wish to add.
- Make sure everyone completes this year's consent form. For adults this can be found in the upper right corner drop-down menu under Acknowledgement Forms
- New lead coach/mentors must complete a background check through the FIRST system with Sterling Volunteers
- Do NOT pay for anything unless you want to.
- You do not need to provide your Social Security number to do the background check, just check the box that says I do not have one.
- Pay for your National Registration, and any additional needed items.
- Your team will need exclusive access to one LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics system.
- Your team will need access to a CITY SHAPER challenge set, up to 3 teams can easily share one set.
2) Team Financial Support Get your Application in Now!
Please read the application page thoroughly before applying. I am excited that we have already been able to provide offers of support to 90 teams across the state of Oregon so far this summer and early fall, I hope your team will not let financial need be the barrier that keeps you from participating!
3) Remembering Charlotte Van Valkenburg
The Staff and Board of Directors of ORTOP are saddened and stunned by the tragic loss of Charlotte Van Valkenburg, a champion of the Oregon FIRST community. Charlotte embodied Gracious Professionalism in her multiple roles, as Coach of FIRST Robotics Competition Team #5468, Chaos Theory, Mentor and League Manager for FIRST Tech Challenge Central Oregon League, and volunteer coordinator for Bend area Intel Oregon FIRST LEGO League Qualifying Tournaments. Her contributions were recognized earlier this year at the Pacific Northwest District Championships, where she received the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. We grieve alongside Charlotte's family, friends, and students impacted by this loss, but heartened by wonderful memories of Charlotte and committed to carrying on her incredible legacy.
4) Free Table / NXT items
Free Table in the Bethany area of Portland - contact Shilpa at lshilps@yahoo.comShilpa also is willing to donate the last two seasons of LEGO challenges to a team who can use them.
Table Available in Hood River - contact Stephanie at stephanie@gorge.net
A table stand (not the actual table, pictured to the right) is available in the Jacob Wismer Elementary School area of Portland - contact Atul at atul_shah@hotmail.com or Ankit tofanmasti@gmail.com
NXT stuff for a team who can use it, located in Hood River - contact Tim at counihantim@gmail.com
5) Team Meeting Guide Check-in x2
We all from time to time, get behind where we plan to be, me included. This week I give you two checkpoints. If you've already met them, great! If not you still have plenty of time to catch up without it being a crunch. I know many groups are still starting or have not yet received their materials. You are NOT behind! I just started this so we could cover one lesson a week. Most teams meet more often than that.The Architect
Goals to Check-off this week
In this session, everyone is doing basically the same thing so differentiating a two-session set of groups is unnecessary. Unless you have a highly focused team, you are unlikely to finish all of the builds in one session. Make sure you have a plan for the build to get finished before the next meeting. It is important to set bags 10 (the white bricks) aside for this meeting. They will be needed next time.
This is the first time we see that the book isn’t completely designed for a single or even pair of teams. That’s ok, but it does mean that sometimes things will be talked about in a way that doesn’t make any sense. Ignore that for now, but we will bring it up a few more times over the 12 sessions. Basically, there is no way a single team is going to have 6 teams of 4 for building the models!
Take special care to inspect all of the models after this session. This is a great role for some parents who aren’t the best with kids but are willing to help out. The movement should be as seen in the video (when applicable) and reasonably consistent. We have already seen challenges with the Crane model. Thankfully most of the builds are very basic this year.
For more ideas for incorporating other parents on your team see this off-season blog post.
- All Team Members can name a FIRST Core Value
- Team has a plan for helping each other remember to use FIRST Core Values at all meetings
- Mission Models are built and the practice table is ready to begin robot and project work.
- A shortlist of Team Names to be decided on at the next meeting.
This is the first time we see that the book isn’t completely designed for a single or even pair of teams. That’s ok, but it does mean that sometimes things will be talked about in a way that doesn’t make any sense. Ignore that for now, but we will bring it up a few more times over the 12 sessions. Basically, there is no way a single team is going to have 6 teams of 4 for building the models!
Take special care to inspect all of the models after this session. This is a great role for some parents who aren’t the best with kids but are willing to help out. The movement should be as seen in the video (when applicable) and reasonably consistent. We have already seen challenges with the Crane model. Thankfully most of the builds are very basic this year.
For more ideas for incorporating other parents on your team see this off-season blog post.
The Client
Goals to Check-off this week
- Identify at least one problem to explore for the Project
- Build a basic robot that drives with two motors
- Program the robot to drive straight for seconds and rotations
- Investigate roles in Robot Design and Project - teams do not need to assign roles.
- The team understands the Discovery Core Value and can name an example from this meeting.
This is our first “two groups” session. If you have more than 4 or 5 on your team, two groups does make sense for learning the robot basics and project fundamentals. If you have a small team you do not need to break into two groups, simply choose which task you are going to do each day and accomplish that. REMEMBER: ORTOP recommends switching the members in each subgroup every 2 sessions so that all team members get the opportunity to work in small groups together and learn each other's strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge makes a team unified and stronger.
The EV3 lesson in the Engineering Notebook can be found in your EV3 software, where you program the robot. From the Teacher or Student Edition go to Robot Educator on the home screen, select Basics, the second option is Straight Move. If your team is using an alternative programming language, you may want to find a similar activity to complete based on all of your team members’ abilities. Other alternatives for more advanced teams can be found on the ORTOP website or EV3 Lessons
For the Project Spark, your team will look at the treehouse. This is NOT the project they will finalize for the tournament. This is just a sample to get the team thinking about the kinds of things they need to consider; a clearly identifiable problem, where that problem is, who needs the problem solved, who is a good expert to work with, and how a solution can be creative. Your team should also use materials or the white bag 10 bricks to depict their solution thoughts. All of this will make the final project easier to do, for new teams and new team members.
Next week we will continue learning the EV3 and about Projects with the Site Survey Session.
6) Resources - my favorites
FIRST is a community. While we don't always have a league of fellow coaches in our geographic area, we do have lots of support. Here are some of my favorites and the ones coaches tell me they like and utilize.
- For Coach/Mentor/Parent/Partner community FLL: Share & Learn on Facebook can't be beat. There are over 5000 active members, myself included. The amount of expertise and ideas in this one forum is unbelievable. Stay on topic, don't post solutions to the game challenges, and you will also be welcome to the community
- Tutorials for everything FIRST LEGO League. When it comes to thinking smarter not harder utilizing the tutorials provided by FIRST LEGO League alumni becomes a no brainer! That brings you to EV3 Lessons. These tutoarals are aimed at team members, not coaches, so pick the appropriate tutorial and sit back to watch the learning happen.
- For everything EV3, you can get lessons straight from the source. LEGO Education has solid EV3 Curriculum free for anyone who wants to utilize it. This one is more for coaches.
- Is your team curious about alternative programming languages that work with FIRST LEGO League? This is my go to chart. Complete with lesson links!
- You can also find more resources on the ORTOP website!
Have a resource that you like? Share it with me and I'll add it to the Workshop and Tutorials page or the Innovation Project Resource page as appropriate.
I wish you all the best weekend possible.
Best Wishes,
Loridee
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