CS6 - Getting the Permits in Order

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

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

1. National Registration Closes - NEXT WEEK!
2. Am I too late to start a team?
3. What you need to apply to attend a Qualifying Tournament
4. What's in a Name? - Team Names
5. Team Led Expert Opportunity at OHSU
6. Using the Team Meeting Guide
7. Why is my mat too short? and other changes for returning teams
8. Intel Oregon FIRST LEGO League Tournaments from last update.

Use this link to read this update as a blog post

IO5: Preparing for Tournament Registration TOMORROW

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

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

1. How to Register for an Oregon Qualifying Tournament
2. How to Pay for an Oregon Qualifying Tournament
3. What is in a Name? - A MUST READ FOR NEW COACHES
4. Team Checkpoint - What you should be working on, right now.

Use this link to read this update as a blog post

HD 8: Making Use of Greywater

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

In this update, you will find:

1. Thank You, Intel and Thermo Fisher Scientific
2. FIRST LEGO League Team Information "Typo Form"
3. More FIRST LEGO League Tables Available
4. TWO Coaches are REQUIRED Before You Can Access Your Team Roster
5. Helpful Handouts from Intel and Tualatin Water District

Use this link to read this update as a blog post

HD4: Distilled News You Can Tap Into

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

In this update you will find:

1. National Registration - CLOSING SOON
2. Checklist to Register for an Oregon Qualifying Tournament
3. Last week for Adult Workshops!
4. Team Roster Reminder - Still Not Open 😞
5. Hillsboro International Air Show
6. CORRECTION from Last Week!

To read this update as a blog, please click here.

Tournament Registration and Judging Update

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon. I apologize for the delay in communication as I have been out sick. I hope this helps some of you catch up and look for more posts soon!

1. Registration Extended due to illness!
2. Tournament Registration Status 
3. Oops! I need to change our name
4. NEW Project Rubric will be piloted in Oregon
5. More updates from the Oregon Judges

1)  Registration Extended due to illness!

Due to a recent illness, the tournament registration has been extended until NOON on Saturday, October 15, 2016 If you have not yet registered your ANIMAL ALLIES team for this season please do so TODAY! Even if your team has is still waiting on a FIRST YPP to finish your national registration. Please fill out an application for your team. Please pay your Tournament Registration Fee. Your team MUST be nationally registered to participate in a tournament, so do not forget to finish that process even if you are still waiting with FIRST!

2)  Tournament Registration Status 

Please check the tournament registration status page to see if we have received your registration for your team and your team payment. Please keep in mind that these items are updated manually through multiple systems. If it has been less than 24 hours (or its the weekend) please do not expect an update to occur. The page update is about 2 days back on payments right now. We are updating the systems as we are able. If you paid or registered before the time of the last update (posted in the yellow box at the top), feel free to contact with questions. 

Tournament Assignments will also be posted on this page By NOVEMBER 7.

3)  Oops! I need to change our name

If the tournament registration status page has the incorrect team name for my team how do I fix it? This is not as easy of a fix as you might think. The registration from survey monkey is what is sent to the tournament directors so to change your team name after it's been submitted takes a little work. Because so many of you are requesting this I have created a form for you to use. Please do not expect it to show up on the status page right away, as all changes have to sent through the entire ORTOP system.

Please have ALL Changes in BEFORE  October 17.  Thank you.

4)  NEW Project Rubric will be piloted in Oregon

FIRST has invited Oregon to pilot the new Project Presentation Rubric. Our judges are very excited about this new rubric, but it is NOT the one posted on www.firstinspires.org. The new rubric can be found on the FIRST LEGO League Oregon website. The updated rubric has an increased focus on the process of developing the Project and includes the following changes:

• The Sources of Information criteria now more clearly reflects the need for quality sources and a wide variety of sources.  Teams must consult professionals in fields relating to their topic to be at the Accomplished or Exemplary levels.
• The Review Existing Solutions criteria has been combined with Problem Analysis and Innovation.  Teams are still expected to review and analyze existing solutions.
• When teams are describing their Team Solution, they are now expected to describe how it solves the problem.
• The new Solution Development criteria encompasses the previous Implementation criteria. Teams should explain how they developed the solution, considered and narrowed alternative solutions, evaluated and improved the solution they chose, and assessed feasibility and implementation factors.

While the update will shift what teams should share with Judges, we do not expect it to have much impact on the work teams are doing for the FIRST LEGO League Project.  Teams who are working toward the Accomplished and Exemplary levels for Solution Development may choose to spend more designing their process than they did before, in order to ensure it is systematic and includes some type of evaluation or verification of their solution.

5)  More updates from the Oregon Judges

If your team has read the challenge manual, which is highly recommended for every team member to do! Your team should have noticed the Core Values Poster and Robot Design Executive Summary. You will also have read that these items are not required in all regions. In Oregon, as in the year's past, both of these items are required at the state championship. However, new this year we will be allowing Core Value Posters at the Qualifying Tournaments. They are NOT required, but if your team would like to make one they may bring it into the judging room and it will be considered by the judges. 

Our Oregon Head Robot Design Judge would also like you to know that the Robot Design Executive Summary is a great way to prepare for robot design judging. This short presentation breaks the ice with judges. It also helps teams to share the unique aspects of their robot, programming, and game strategy. The Executive Summary must be short! It should include 1 robot run that the team would like to use to highlight their robot and programming. The summary should not be longer than 1-2 minutes and should be considered the ice-breaker the team starts with as they enter the judging room.

Since I have been out sick I am terribly behind on email and voicemails. Please have patience. If I address your issue in this blog do NOT expect an email. If I have not addressed your issue please email again next week. I am doing my best to make sure all of you get your questions answered, but am hoping that today's blog covers some of the most common questions.

Best Wishes,

Loridee

National Registration Prepares to Close

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

In this update you will find:

1. National Registration will Close - don't be left out!
2. WARNING - Potential FIRST website down-time.
3. LEGO Education Teacher's Workshop
4. DATES - Tournament Registration, and SOME of the Qualifying Tournaments
5. Adding Team Members to your team online.
6. What's In a Name - What you need to know about Team Names
7. Already attended a Coach Workshop, but would like more training/advice?
8. Are you Ready for ANIMAL ALLIES? -  an inventory check for rookie teams
9. FIRST LEGO League Jr Info Night - for people with kids in K-4th grades

I apologize for putting so many updates in one post, lots happening this week!

1)  National Registration will Close - don't be left out!

National Registration for Oregon will have a soft close on October 3, 2016. What does this mean? If your team has not paid their national registration by October 3, they must have 2 coaches who have accepted the team AND email Loridee Wetzel to confirm that they have BOTH started the YPP process in order to be invited to register for an Intel Oregon FIRST LEGO League Qualifying Tournament on October 5th. This means, if you are planning on having a team this year, you need to make sure all your information is up to date!

Are you struggling with the new FIRST registration system? Help is available! First, please review the pdf walkthrough I created earlier this summer. It has many screen shots to help show you the way through the system, for both a new and returning team. If you can't find your answer, or you just need some personalized help. Please email Loridee, call ORTOP (503-486-7622), or call FIRST during East Coast business hours (1-800-871-8326 ext 0). 

Not sure where to start? 

All teams start at www.firstinspires.org

If you had a FIRST account last year, it has been transferred to the new system, you can start at the log in.  Your teams should be waiting for your on your Dashboard.

2) WARNING - Potential FIRST website down-time.
On Thursday, some of you were unfortunate enough to run into the www.firstinspires.org crash. This crash was partially caused by FIRST Robotics Competition Registration. FIRST Robotics Competition Registration has been moved to Thursday, September 29. FIRST will do everything they can to keep the site running and the databases accessible for updating your team Dashboard. Please be aware that the site may be extra sluggish in the morning at least.

3) LEGO Education Teacher's WorkshopLEGO Education will be in Oregon with a free workshop for teachers specifically talking about using LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3. It will all be in Albany at Linn-Benton Community College on October 14th. If you are a teacher, I hope you can join us!  Please register here

4) DATES - Tournament Registration, and SOME of the Qualifying Tournaments

There are a lot of things happening this season. FIRST LEGO League will move very fast for the next couple weeks. Here are some dates you need to know!

Oct 3 - Oregon National Team Registration will close
Oct 5 - Oregon Qualifying Tournament Registration will Open (Only teams who list Oregon as their region and have a national registration complete are invited to apply)
Oct 12 - Last day to register for a Qualifying Tournament
Oct 12 - Last day to change TEAM NAME used at the Qualifying Tournament - this will be taken from your tournament application (not the FIRST system)
Oct 31 - Last day for Qualifying Tournament Checks and Purchase Orders, all payments must be received to complete tournament registration.
Nov 7 - Tournament Assignments will be posted (possibly earlier)
Dec 3, 4, 10, & 11 -  Intel Oregon FIRST LEGO League Qualifying Tournaments - temporary dates and locations are listed on the website and are subject to change!
Jan 14 & 15 - Intel Oregon FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournaments presented by Rockwell Collins at Liberty High School. Approximately 1/3 of all teams will advance to a state championship.

5) Adding Team Members to your team online.

At this time the FIRST system for adding team members is a hybrid of last year's system and this year's Dashboard.  As such there is not new documentation available at this time.

If you would like the parents to add their students to your team. Please have them complete the following:

1. Create a login at www.firstinspires.org (unless they have an account from last year)
2. From their Dashboard select I Want To + 
3. Select Complete Youth Registration 
4. Here they may need to complete some additional profile questions
5. They may update a child already in the system - if they had an account last year
6. They may Add Youth
7. They MUST enter the official FIRST Team Number to complete the parent steps in the team member registration process

Coaches - you will find your team member from your Dashboard. You will need to accept each child to the team.

WARNING - Do not use the coach's account to have parents add their students! The rosters will not show as legally signed.

6) What's In a Name - What you need to know about Team Names
It is best if your team has decided on a team name by the time your register for your Qualifying Tournament (October 5-12). The team name will be asked for on the Qualifying Tournament registration form. It DOES NOT need to match the team name in the FIRST system. Our tournament directors do not have access to the FIRST system and can not see any changes made there, they can only see the parts of the forms that are shared with them after a team registers for a tournament. 

Your FIRST team name, the one connected to your team on www.firstinspires.org, will be printed on your team Roster when you print it for the tournament in December. If you want to change it, login to www.firstinspires.org, make sure the correct team is selected (if you have more than one), and select Edit on the blue section under the team number and name. This allows you to change your team's name, zip code, and region - although all your regions should say Oregon if you plan to attend one of our events in December!

Oregon Guidelines on Team Names

Please be aware of these additional guidelines on team names

• Team names should not make fun of a group or demographic
• Team names should not use aggressive or violent terms (ie kill, murder, etc)
• No drug or sexual names
• No references to songs/videos/movies/anime that focus on the above
• Please Google all names to make sure that they are not in the above category as slang - even if your team thinks they made up the word.  If you skip this step, we won't!

Please do be creative in your team names!

7) Already attended a Coach Workshop, but would like more training/advice?

FIRST would like to invite rookie coaches to their online coach resource program. By filling out an invitation request coaches, teachers, and parents may enroll in a schoology class for FIRST LEGO League. This is an adult only space!  Please go to info.firstinspires.org/fllfirststeps to submit your request.

Are you an experienced coach with a heart to help those that are just starting? FIRST also would like you to join their schoology class. The class has an interactive workspace where rookies and experienced coaches from around North America can go for help. Just request access at info.firstinspires.org/fllfirststeps

8) Are you Ready for ANIMAL ALLIES? -  an inventory check for rookie teams

It is nearly the end of September, it's time for a season check sheet and our first set of goals!

At this time your team should have:

1. Two ADULT coaches who have FIRST accounts and have completed their YPP. 
2. An officially registered team number - this should be a 2-6 digit number.
3. You should have ordered your LEGO challenge kit for ANIMAL ALLIES - TRASH TREK is not going to work this year!
4. You should have ordered or prepared a LEGO MINDSTORMS robot for the exclusive use of your team through the season, this can be an EV3 or an NXT model.
5. A 4'x8' table or space to make a mock table to use your challenge kit
6. The ANIMAL ALLIES Challenge Guide!
7. The first set of ANIMAL ALLIES Updates!
8. The official Table Set Up Guide
9. A team meeting space
10. A general team meeting schedule

Goals for Next Month:

1. Finalize your Team Name
2. Register for your Qualifying Tournament between October 5 & 12
3. Select an animal or problem for your conflict
4. Identify 3 potential experts to go with your animal or problem
5. Build your challenge kit
6. Identify the first mission your team will work on achieving
7. Agree on robot base design - will it have wheels or treads, how many drive motors, wheel/tread configuration, how will attachments be added and removed.
8. Each team member knows the Core Values and can define Gracious Professionalism

9) FIRST LEGO League Jr Info Night - for people with kids in K-4th grades

I will be hosting an information session for FIRST LEGO League Jr at OMSI on October 11th from 6-8pm in Classroom 1. To sign up and for more information please see the FIRST LEGO League Jr blog.