Nature's Fury Team Blast #4 - Coach Training,

Hello Coaches,
I hope your season is going smoothly.
Below are the major topics in this email.  Please read through carefully.

1. Training, training, training...2. Qualifying Tournaments3. Materials
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1. Training, training, training.

A: FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Headquarters' Coach Calls
FLL HQ hosts Coach Calls which cover a variety of topics.  They are conference calls and the dial in information and topics can be found here (just scroll down the page a bit).  They also record their calls and post them.  Many have already been completed and you can listen to them on your way to work or whenever is convenient for you.

B: FLL Ontario Webinars
We host local webinars in the evenings in Ontario.  The upcoming topics can be downloaded from this file.  Please take a look at the topics that interest you.  I want to highlight our first one which is a season-specific topic kicking us off on TUESDAY evening with a special guest.  This would be a great one for the whole team to chime in on if possible.  Register here for that one and check out the document for the rest (which run Tuesdays and/or Thursdays from 7-8:30 p.m.

C: Face to Face training
October 5th at St. Mildred's in Oakville - keep an eye on our Facebook page for the link to register.

D: FLL Quickstart Video - check it out and tell us what you think?

E: Online resources:
http://www.firstroboticscanada.org/main/fll-ontario/training-resources/http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/teamresourceshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rla4NSfPmM4 (EV3 programming)
http://www.stemcentric.com/nxt-tutorial/ (NXT programming)


2. Qualifying TournamentsMany people have been inquiring about the qualifying tournaments for FLL this year.  They are currently postedhere but not available to register yet.  Ontario is split into two regions (East and West) and there is a championship event for each region.  Certain qualifying tournaments feed into each of these championships.

How do we split Ontario?  We do it geographically so that we have (as close as possible) the same number of teams competing in each half of the province.  This makes the percentage of teams moving on from each event even on both sides of the province.

If your team is located West of Toronto you will have to select a Western Qualifying Tournament which will eventually feed into the West Provincial Championships on January 11th at the University of Waterloo.

If your team is located in Toronto or East of Toronto you will have to select a tournament that is categorized as an Eastern Qualifying tournament and these will eventually feed into the East provincial championships being held at UOIT on January 18th.

The only exception to this rule is the TDSB because they are on the edge of the dividing line for the province.  Teams in the TDSB will be assigned a tournament and teams attending the Runnymede event will be in a Western qualifying tournament while teams in the other three TDSB events will be in the Eastern stream.

Tournament Registration links will be provided on this page (the page is not currently displaying properly but the first 10 events are East and from Sudbury down are all West events).  Contact information for the event will also be posted there.  If you have questions regarding the event you're attending (e.g. you want to know if it's wheelchair accessible, etc.) please contact the person responsible for the event.


3. MaterialsIf you are missing pieces or other details related to your Field Setup Kit, please contact Spectrum Customer Service directly.

To track or ask questions about your FLL or Jr.FLL order, please contact customer service 1-800-668-0600.

For order inquiries, please contact customer service 1-800-668-0600 or customerservice@spectrumed.com

Thanks,

Dave

Dave Ellis
Director, FLL Ontario
FIRST Robotics Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org

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Nature's Fury Team Blast #3 - FLL 2013 Kick-off and Training Event!!

Hello everyone! 

I hope the return to school has gone smoothly for everyone this week.  

In a previous email I mentioned upcoming training and so today I wanted to officially invite you all to our 3rd Annual FLL Kick-off and Training event that is quickly approaching.  We will be holding the training on Saturday, September 21st at Crescent School in Toronto.  We will be A big thank you to the school for donating the space to this event. 

Click here to REGISTER and provide details about your team, who's attending, and your food order.  Registration for this event closes September 16th.

There will be another event coming up on October 5th in Oakville as well.  Details for this event to follow in another team blast.

Dave


Dave EllisDirector, FLL OntarioFIRST Robotics Canadawww.firstroboticscanada.org
Like us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube Channel and follow us on Twitter @CAN FIRST!

Update to EV3 Software download

Hello coaches,

If you have downloaded a copy of the EV3 software for the new LEGO Mindstorms robot this year you should have received this notice below.  I'm posting here just to make sure everyone knows about it.  If you're using the NXT robot, please ignore this notice as it only applies to the EV3.

Dave

New LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 Software available

Dear LEGO Education user,

As a valued customer who has recently purchased and downloaded the new LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Software from the LEGO Education Online Resources web site (www.LEGOeducation.com/LERO), we would like to inform you of an important software update.

Due to a number of major bugs found in the EV3 Software, a new version (v1.01) has been released. We strongly encourage you to use this new version going forward.The EV3 Software itself will also notify you about the availability of a software upgrade but In order to upgrade, you need to uninstall the existing EV3 Software version (v1.00) and download and install the new one.

To access the new version of the EV3 Software, simply revisit the LEGO Education Online Resources web site (www.LEGOeducation.com/LERO) and repeat the download procedure. With the new files (the file name will state “01-01” instead of “01-00”).

If you have used LEGO ID for product activation, please login with your username and password at the top right corner of the web site. If you have forgotten your username or password, you can get help by clicking “Forgot your password/username?” Once logged in, go to the EV3 Software product page and choose the software download file you need.

If you have activated your product using an e-mail address, you can reuse the Access-Link that was e-mailed to you during the activation process. If you do not have the Access-Link anymore, you can repeat the activation process on the web site by typing in the Activation Code and the same e-mail address you used for the original activation. A new Access-Link will then be e-mailed to you. The Access-Link will take you to the EV3 Software product page where you can choose the software download file you need.

If you have also purchased and installed the EV3 Design Engineering Projects activity pack, then make sure you do not select this file during the uninstall process. If it is uninstalled by accident, download and install it again like the EV3 Software.

Please share this message with all relevant persons/colleagues.

Please contact your local LEGO Education distributor if you have any questions to the above.

We strongly apologize for the inconvenience this is causing you.

Kind regards,

LEGO Education