Grant application

Hello teams,

For those of you interested in the spring grant, please remember that you and/or the team you're mentoring must purchase a registration from FLL first and THEN apply for the grant. Interest in this program is growing so I would suggest that you register early in May (when registration opens) and apply immediately for the grant. More information on this process will be posted in the next few weeks so check back often!

Dave

Provincial Championships

Hello everyone,

So it's been a while since I posted something new on the blog but I wanted to draw your attention to a couple things. First of all, the Provincial Championships were a huge success once again as we had 50 teams competing against each other with lots of hardware being handed out. A big thank you to UOIT for being our host and donating most of the university to our event! In addition, we had sponsorship from OPG once again this year and RIM came on board as a major sponsor of our program as well.

A big congratulations goes out to all the teams who competed on January 15th at UOIT. If you're interested in checking out the results of our event, you can see it on our new site. Other media coverage of the event includes:
http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/article/169634
http://www.uoit.ca/EN/main2/about/news_events/news_archives/news_releases/2011/20110118_1.html
http://www.diabetes.ca/get-involved/news/kids-share-their-winning-idea-for-diabetes-management/
http://planetyou.discoverychannel.ca/mediadetail/3565301

And if you're interested in seeing some photos of the event, please check out Ian Goodall's photos from the day at: http://ian.photoshelter.com/gallery/G0000HBX2o1WW750

Take care everyone!

Dave

15 minutes of fame!!

OK, so not 15 minutes...but 5 minutes is good too!

Planning is in full swing for the Provincial Championships and this year we would like to try something new. Because the Pilot that Ontario is in (don't forget to provide feedback on the pilot!) has placed more of an even emphasis on Teamwork, Project, and Design we would like that reflected in what people see as well. Much of what is great in FLL is done behind doors in the judges rooms.

Do you have a great presentation that you would love others to see? Wouldn't it be great if it could be show-cased at the Provincial Championships?! Your team didn't qualify for the Provincial Championships? No problem - anyone can send their presentation to us! Check out the details below.

Details:
What: We'd like to show your presentation in video. There are no strings attached and nothing implied, just a chance to show your work to the crowd.
When: submission deadline is Friday, December 17th so DON'T DELAY!
Where: The selected presentations will be shown at the Provincial Championships at UOIT on January 15th!
Why: Because it's FUN! Also, it will be a chance for people to see some entertaining presentations that they would normally never see!
How: send us your presentation in a common video format (mov, wmv, etc.) on CD/DVD or via the internet (Youtube or some other creative way of getting it to us) and we will choose a few to show at the Provincial Champioships. You can email the video to fllontario@gmail.com or you can snailmail it to us at:

FIRST Robotics Canada

P.O. Box 518, Pickering Main

Pickering, Ontario

L1V 2R7

Have fun!

Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
http://fllontario.org/

Big Changes in FLL this year!

Hello teams,

As we approach our FLL tournament season I just wanted to touch base regarding a few major changes that FLL is going through this year. They are:
1) Pilot change in judging values (the BIG one)

Please remember that Ontario is one of a few regions that has been chosen to be a part of the FLL Judging Pilot. We are very excited about this opportunity and welcome any feedback (good and bad) you may have regarding anything to do with the pilot. For a recap of these major changes please see my email to the coach of your team for more info or email me directly. We're not allowed to post them on a website.

2) Robot strategy change (from previous years)

One major change from previous years that we thought we should point out is that there is no more "stray objects" rule. Please note Rule 18, 22, and 23 in the attached "Rules" document. Some points to consider as a result:

• If your robot leaves base with an object and loses control of it, you don't get it back and you can't ask the ref to move it for you. IT STAYS WHERE IT IS.
  
• If you pick up your robot outside of base while it is still in control of the object you get a touch penalty for the robot touch but you would get the robot and object back in base.
  
• If you are retrieving an object to base and lose control of the object, it stays where it is.
• If you pick up your robot while it is retrieving an object you get a touch penalty AND lose the object (ref removes it from the table).

Questions regarding Judging can go to either me or Calum Tsang (our Provincial Judge Advisor) at tsangc@mie.utoronto.ca.

Questions regarding Reffing can go to either me or Ian Mackenzie (our Provincial Head Ref) at ian.e.mackenzie@gmail.com.

Also, I wanted to let you all know that there will be another practice tournament being held in Kingston - these practice tournaments are a great opportunity for your team. I strongly recommend getting to one if you are able. If you are interested in the Kingston tournament, there is more information at http://kbotics.ca/fll/.

Thanks,

Dave

We need your input!

Hello coaches and kids!

Once again, I'm greeting you with great news from FLL-land in Ontario!

Part of the mandate for our Provincial funding is that we have some data to present to the province when the season is over. To fulfill that requirement, and to also help drive our program to become even better than it is, we have created two surveys. I am asking that you take a moment yourself AND with your team to go over the two surveys. As I said, it will help our program moving forward AND at each tournament we will have a PRIZE DRAW from all the names of the people who complete the survey. There is a coach survey for you to fill out and a participant survey for EACH of the children on your team to fill out.

This is how it will work:

1. BEFORE you attend your tournament, you and the children must complete the surveys (actually submissions MUST be received at least 24 HOURS BEFORE your tournament date)
2. I will collect the data and send a list of names of those who completed the survey to the tournament director at your tournament (this will happen the day before your tournament so make sure you complete the survey EARLY!). Please note that only the names will be sent on to the tournament director - no other data will be seen by the tournament directors so your answers will NOT influence the judges at all :)
3. At some point on your tournament day, your tournament director will perform the draws. One draw will be for the coaches who completed their survey and one draw will be for the participants who completed the survey - I'm going to keep the prizes a surprise, but believe me, you DEFINITELY want to win these prizes!! Hint hint, they could REALLY help you next season!!
   

NB: the participant survey asks for the name of the children and the team's name. We've asked that they enter ONLY their first names in the name field. This information is being collected solely for the purpose of the draw and will not be used to contact the children (there is no contact information requested on the survey). If you and the children would feel more comfortable putting in nicknames that would be fine as well (as long as you know which nicknames belong to which children in case they win).

The links to the two surveys are provided below - please complete them as soon as you can.

Coach Survey
Participant Survey

Thank you for your attention to these two surveys and GOOD LUCK in the draw!!

Dave

Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
http://fllontario.org/

AMAZING Financial Incentive Program!!

IMPORTANT: An updated process has recently been posted.  Please read the most up to date post here.

Hello FLL teams in Ontario!

I have VERY exciting news for you today! In the spring the provincial government provided FIRST Robotics Canada with a $3 million grant to be used over the next 5 years to grow FIRST programs in Ontario.

Do you like FLL? Do you think it benefits your kids? Wouldn't it be great if we could spread the word about FLL and get even MORE kids involved?! I just heard today from a coach who had been working in a very under-privileged school in Toronto. After moving through the FLL program roughly 30% of his graduating class went on to advanced Science and Tech programs at specialized Sci/Tech high schools which are very prestigious! 30% is an incredible success story for those kids in that area. And it was largely because of his initiative to bring FLL to his school! You've all likely got an exciting story with your own team; however, wouldn't it be awesome to leave behind a legacy of positive change in even MORE kids' lives? Now you can be part of that!

OK, the details of the growth incentive program are in the two attached documents (one for starting a new team and one for experienced teams like yourselves to mentor rookie teams). Please read them over carefully. In a nutshell however, FIRST Robotics Canada will be providing a grant for new teams to start up next year (NXT and registration paid for) and a separate grant for veteran teams (registration paid for) to mentor rookie teams.

I would strongly suggest that if you have a school/teacher/organization in mind that you invite the interested stakeholders out to the tournament you are attending. Get them to see the event in action and you'll have them hooked for sure! Then they can register their team at the beginning of May, you can apply for the mentoring grant and everyone benefits! If you can't get them to your local qualifier then approach them before the Provincial Championships in January and ask them to join you there.

Once we reach our target # funding will cease - make sure to read everything thoroughly. Please note that neither the Mentoring Team application nor the New Team application will be accepted until after FLL registration begins in May as we need your FLL team number if you are a new team. If you are a mentoring team you will need to include your “new teams’” FLL team number. Only complete forms will be considered. Applications must be emailed in to me at this address and my inbox will provide the time stamp of acceptance.

There is money to be had people!!

New Team Grant
Mentoring Team Grant

Dave

Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
http://fllontario.org/

Sponsorship Opportunity from Apprenticesearch.com

Hello everyone, earlier in the season we announced the sponsorship opportunity from Apprenticesearch.com for teams in Ontario. Many teams applied and the results are IN!

To see the results, click here!

Congrats to everyone who applied and THANK YOU to Apprenticesearch.com!

Dave