CS11: What Was I Doing?

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

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

1. Mea Culpa
2. Saturday Teams Needed to Swap for Salem on Sunday, Dec 8
3. What you absolutely need for your tournament
4. Do Good with ORTOP
5. Free Table in Central Oregon
6. Letters from your Tournament Director
7. Using the Team Meeting Guide

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, 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) Mea Culpa

I would like to start this week's email with an apology to all of you. As you know I respect all of your information and your time. I try not to send an email unless it is necessary and I try to keep your personal questions, personal. This week I accidentally copied the entire mailing list on a personal reply to one coach. This caused a lot of confusion and was not fair to the coach. I will continue to be cautious as I reply to your questions. I do make this mistake around 3 times a year. 

2) Saturday Teams Needed to Swap for Salem on Sunday, Dec 8

We have an urgent need for three teams with a Saturday event in Salem, Corvallis, or the nearby area to swap with three teams who are currently assigned to Sunday, December 8 in Salem. These teams have team members who can not attend on December 8. We have to have a swap or the event in Salem will be too small to hold, and we do not want to cancel that event. If your team can swap days, please email Loridee-Wetzel@ortop.org with your team # and the tournament you are currently assigned to.  Thank you!

3) What you absolutely need for your tournament

This is not our standard what to bring checklist. That can be found on your tournament website and in next week's email, most likely. This is the bare minimum your team needs to have a full and fun tournament experience. This is things that can be worked on BEFORE your event day.

• Two adult coaches who show up on your FIRST printed roster with complete background checks. (even if they can't make it to tournament day)
• Neither a red or a yellow mark on your team on this list
• Red means you aren't signed up to attend an event! 😱
• Yellow means we are still missing your team's payment.
• 2-10 team members - all of whom will participate in the Robot Design Judging, Core Values Judging, and Presentation as well as Innovation Project Judging.
• A presentation that shares all of the following:
• An identified problem with a building or public space
• An innovative solution to the identified problem
• What expert(s) that solution has been shared with
• A plan for if a team member is sick, who will share their contributions in each of the aspects.
• A robot kit - preferably with at least the basic bot assembled.
• A device that programming can be done on with the robot.
• A good idea of the Challenge rules
• FIRST Core Values!
• How to have fun in success and failure!
• (optional, but recommended) Fans who understand the FIRST Core Values and can cheer for all the teams at the event.

There are more things of course, that you can do, can bring, can prepare. I'd like for every team to have 1 mission that works all the time, one that works most of the time, and one that might work by the end of the tournament day on that robot, but it's not actually required. It's awesome to have pit bingo sheets or team interview sheets for meeting other teams. Again not required. 

4) Do Good with ORTOP

As part of the Willamette Weekly Give! Guide ORTOP is $2,600 towards our $10,000 goal! Thank you to everyone who has already contributed. Watch our FB page for special give day announcements, or give any time at www.ortop.org/give.  

5) Free Table in Central Oregon

A former team is looking to rehome their FIRST LEGO League table. If you are in Central Oregon and are interested in this table please contact Suzanne at sknox@bendcable.com

6) Letters from your Tournament Director

Watch your inbox for an email from an ORTOP volunteer regarding your upcoming qualifying tournament. These letters will provide you with general information about your tournament and specifics about the rules at your location. Please read these carefully, we rewrote them this year and they are significantly shorter!  If you have not received your letter by the week before your event please reach out!

7) Using the Team Meeting Guide

Renovations

Goals to check off this week 

• Team has revised their innovative solution based on expert feedback
• Team presentation is 4.5-5 minutes in length
• Team members can assemble and transport all presentation props without adult help
• Team’s robot and all attachments fit into one of the two inspection areas
• Team knows the difference between Home and Launch
• Team members can share how they’ve used a Core Value today
• Build your bag 10 model

It’s here, the final weeks before the competition! Your team doesn’t look like they’ll ever be ready for the tournament. Just like no building is ever quite perfect, our time in renovations (which I recommend lasts several meetings) is making functional into good and good into better. Perfection is never achieved, at least not in my experience. Perfection stops innovation, stops growth, and stops learning. Perfection is not our goal. However, functional, good, and better are great goals to have. 

Now is a great time to print the Rubrics that your team will be evaluated on. These are NOT the rubrics in the Team Meeting guide! I know we looked at them earlier when we started our planning, but now is a great time to check on where you are. Remember the items with an asterisk are required and must be shared with the judges during your Innovation Project Presentation. Have your team give themselves an evaluation on each rubric. Then as a team decide what the team focus should be for your remaining time. How will the team know if they’ve met their rubric goal and can move on to another one? It is fine to have multiple goals, but I suggest no more than 3 at a time. Prioritize!

It is tempting to think that the team is never going to be ready for the event. Most coaches feel that way in November. However, taking these steps and setting your event goals (next week’s email) will have your team learning and growing by leaps and bounds that you didn’t believe was possible! The event, is worth it. Don’t underestimate those kids, ever. 

I want to thank everyone who reached out to let me know you and your team will be thinking and praying for me. That means so much. As a reminder, I will be out of the office from November 20 through part of December. Don't worry; there are people lining up to help you get through these last few weeks and to ensure your tournament experience is amazing. FIRST truly is the family we choose and I couldn't be more blessed to have all of you in my life.

Best Wishes,
Loridee

Want to receive this blog as an email? Want to stop receiving these blogs as emails, manage your subscription here.