Monday, November 17, 2014

FLL World Class Team Blast #6 - Tournament Prep

Hello teams,

In this email:
  1. Tournament Preparation
  2. Sharing from around the world
  3. FLL Ontario Blog
Tournament Preparation
You will be attending your qualifying tournament in the next couple of weeks and I wanted to review some items to remember and prepare.
  1. Consent and release forms - For those of you who are new to FLL, FIRST requires a Consent and Release form to be signed by all coaches and participants at the event.  In the past these have been done via a paper version.  This year, FLL HQ has offered a new online method of doing this to cut down on the paper required for signing and postage for sending all the copies to HQ.  Please follow the instructions here to complete this process for your team PRIOR to your event.  Using the Team Roster  http://screencast.com/t/bigyCOnpJ.  For those parents who wish not to sign online, they can follow the procedures in this form to complete a paper copy of the consent and release form.
  2. Teams MUST participate in all three areas of FLL (Robot Design, Core Values, AND the Research Project) in order to be eligible for Core Awards and advancement to the Provincial Championships
  3. For information on how the Champions' Award and Advancement to Provincials works please refer to this FAQ page.
  4. A REMINDER that teams must have a MAXIMUM of 10 children at the event.  Any team with more than 10 members at the event will be ineligible for awards and/or advancement to the provincials.
  5. Make sure you refer to the Rubrics when preparing your team!
  6. The Coaches' Manual (if you haven't already downloaded it is a great resource for the season and for preparing for an event in terms of what to expect)
  7. If you're a rookie team (or even if you're NOT!) you may be feeling a little overwhelmed and under-prepared right now - fear not, EVERYONE feels under-prepared and there will be many teams at all events that are rookies and may have no missions or only one mission accomplished.  Don't let that stop you from attending 
  8. If you've not visited it yet, check out the FLL World Class Resources page
Sharing from around the world
INSPIRING IDEA
FLL teams 52 and 59, from Mesa Robles Robotworks (in the LA region) have created a Core Values project.  They believe this is a great project and represents the essence of FIRST's Core Values.   Read about their idea:

Together we have developed a Facebook page and a YouTube page where 1 minute to 2 minute videos on Core Values can be posted.  The Facebook page can be found  https://www.facebook.com/INSPIRECoreValues  The name of the project is INSPIRE Core Values and we are asking all FIRST teams to post a video.  Instructions have been posted in the About section of our Facebook page.   

EV3 LESSONS
This team from Pittsburgh, PA have created a website to share EV3 lessons.  Check it out!  http://www.ev3lessons.com/other.html

FLL Ontario Blog
If you feel you've missed an important email from me, know that you can always check out the FLL Ontario Blog which archives all the emails sent (note: with the exception of the tournament registration emails because those were sent ONLY to the Head Coach listed for the team to avoid duplicate registrations/confusion in the system).

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

FLL World Class Team Blast #5

Hello coaches,

I hope your preparations for your upcoming event continue to go well.  Please see below some updates/reminders.

In this post:
  1. Tournament Registration completed
  2. Tournament paperwork
  3. Team Resources - MUST read the coaches' manual!
  4. Field Setup Kits
  5. Global Innovation Award

1. Tournament Registration Completed
Tournament Registration is closed and I've attached a file which lists all teams attending all events.  If you want to check your status please do so using this file.

2. Tournament Paperwork
Your Tournament Director will be following up with you soon regarding details for their event including payment.  
You should be prepared to have these documents ready for your event:
  • FIRST Consent and Release forms (either done online through your TIMS account in which case you just need the roster form printed or printed copies from each child brought to the event) - for details on how to use your TeamRoster to do this online, please refer to this 4-minute video explaining it: Using the Team Roster  http://screencast.com/t/bigyCOnp
  • RDES: please download this file and follow the instructions included within.  This framework will help your teamprepare for the Robot Design Judging component of the tournament.
    Basic Outline: The RDES should include the following elements: Robot FactsDesign Details, and a short Trial Run. 
3. Team Resources
You can find many resources for your team on our website here and on FIRST LEGO League Headquarter's site here.  These resources include a Coaches' Manual which is a great resource.  I recommend you read it through cover to cover if this is your first or second year because it has great reminders and an overview of what to expect in the season and at a tournament.

4. Field Setup Kits
If you haven't already done so, you need to make sure to call Spectrum to order your Field Setup Kit for this season.  Details on doing so can be found on my blog post from June 23.

 5. FLL Global Innovation Award 
This piece is TOTALLY optional and teams usually look at this AFTER their event is over - either way, don't stress over this one if you're new to FLL!  This is meant more for the experienced teams ready to take their project to the next level.

Submissions are being accepted for the FIRST® LEGO® League Global Innovation Award presented by XPRIZE! FLLteams may submit their innovative idea from the FLL WORLD CLASS season until 2 p.m. ET February 10, 2015. The winning team will receive USD $20,000 to further develop the team’s invention and/or to support team activities related to FIRST programs.  Each member of the three Finalist teams will also win a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 robot set.  Encourage teams to go to http://fllinnovation.firstlegoleague.org/ to find out more.


Go Teams!

Dave