Hello Teams,
We are hours away from the official launch of the
game and project for the 2012 FLL Sr. Solutions' season and we couldn't
be more excited about this upcoming season! Did you know it's our 10th
anniversary of FIRST LEGO League in Ontario?! That's a major milestone
for us and we have plans to celebrate - more on that later!
Speaking of celebrating, please make sure to bring as many members
of your team (coaches and kids) to join us for our 1st Annual FLL
Kick-Off and Training event being held on Saturday, September 22nd at
Crescent School in Toronto. The tentative schedule of the day can be found here. We will have an overview of the game and project to clarify
any questions, many talented presenters including several past
Provincial Champions leading a comprehensive series of workshops, and we
have a long period of time blocked off at the end of the day for your
team to work on actually building and programming your robot to
accomplish some missions for this year's game before you leave! That's
right, leave with a working robot! Oh, and did I mention that there
will be food...lunch is on us! AND it gets better, if you sign up today
you'll get a set of steak knives ABSOLUTELY free! OK, no steak
knives...but there WILL be cake!! Cake's good too!
Seriously though, please DO join us for what is shaping up to be a
fantastic day of mingling, asking questions, learning, and playing with
LEGO!
To help us plan for numbers, I just ask that you please fill out this simple 2-minute survey to let us know how many people are coming from your team (yes - the kids should come too!!).
Thanks! Can't wait to see you all at the event!
Dave
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
Sr. Solutions 2012 Team Blast #2
Hello Coaches,
I hope your summer is going well so far and you're enjoying the warm weather.
We are very excited about our upcoming season which will launch in just over a month! We are planning a Kick-Off event for Saturday, September 22nd in Toronto. At the kick off event we will go over the game in detail and answer questions pertaining to the missions (as best we can). We are also planning to have a training component to the day where you can bring your team of kids (or as many as you can transport) to the event with your laptop and robot and come away with a pretty decent chassis, some knowledge of programming and building techniques, and perhaps even some missions started!
Along those lines, we are looking for experienced coaches who would be willing to present at this event to small groups of coaches/FLL team members. I would like to have a beginner workshop on basic building and programming. I would also like to have an intermediate programming group to teach more advanced concepts and an intermediate building group to teach about modular design and universal attachments. If you would be willing and are free to teach others and share your knowledge/experience, I would love to hear from you! Send me an email back or call me and we can discuss further.
More details to follow but for now, please mark you calendars with that date and plan to be in Toronto for the day to learn about FIRST LEGO League and the NXT robotics platform.
Have a great rest of summer!
Dave
I hope your summer is going well so far and you're enjoying the warm weather.
We are very excited about our upcoming season which will launch in just over a month! We are planning a Kick-Off event for Saturday, September 22nd in Toronto. At the kick off event we will go over the game in detail and answer questions pertaining to the missions (as best we can). We are also planning to have a training component to the day where you can bring your team of kids (or as many as you can transport) to the event with your laptop and robot and come away with a pretty decent chassis, some knowledge of programming and building techniques, and perhaps even some missions started!
Along those lines, we are looking for experienced coaches who would be willing to present at this event to small groups of coaches/FLL team members. I would like to have a beginner workshop on basic building and programming. I would also like to have an intermediate programming group to teach more advanced concepts and an intermediate building group to teach about modular design and universal attachments. If you would be willing and are free to teach others and share your knowledge/experience, I would love to hear from you! Send me an email back or call me and we can discuss further.
More details to follow but for now, please mark you calendars with that date and plan to be in Toronto for the day to learn about FIRST LEGO League and the NXT robotics platform.
Have a great rest of summer!
Dave
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Sr. Solutions Team Blast #1
Hello everyone,
As we close out the Food Factor season of FLL with last week's World Festival in St. Louis, we are immediately looking to FLL registration opening again on Monday, May 7th at 12 p.m for the 2012 Sr. Solutions' Season!
It's very exciting to note that this will be FLL Ontario's 10-year anniversary and is an exciting time to join the movement of changing our culture to one in which Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) is celebrated and where becoming a technology hero is something to which our kids will aspire!
To join the movement and register your team, on May 7th go to: https://gofll.usfirst.org/. Keep in mind that sometimes the registration system is overloaded with registrations right at noon and persistence and/or patience may be required. :)
I am very excited to let you know that once again, FIRST Robotics Canada will be offering grants to support the growth of new teams. If you are interested in starting an FLL team at your school or organizations, please review "How to start an FLL team". There are additional links on that page which outlines time commitments and costs.
To receive the grant money to support your new team, please review these instructions.
The actual document you need to submit to receive the funding can be downloaded from here. Grants will be administered in a first-come first served manner and it is anticipated that they will go fast.
There will also be limited (30) grants for existing FLL and/or FRC teams to mentor a new FLL team so if you're an existing FLL team from one of our previous years and want to get a neighbouring school or community group involved and would like some money for your own team, FIRST Robotics Canada has set aside thirty $250 grants for FLL or FRC teams who would like to receive this grant (expectations of you as a mentor are outlined in the FLL Mentor Application and the FRC Mentor Application).
There will also be grants for Jr. FLL (for kids 6-9 years old) which will open for registration in August - for more information on Jr. FLL, please see www.jrfirstlegoleague.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and/or FLL Ontario's Blog in order to receive immediate updates on the FLL and Jr. FLL funding as it becomes available.
Go FIRST!
Dave
Dave Ellis
Director, FLL Ontario
FIRST Robotics Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
As we close out the Food Factor season of FLL with last week's World Festival in St. Louis, we are immediately looking to FLL registration opening again on Monday, May 7th at 12 p.m for the 2012 Sr. Solutions' Season!
It's very exciting to note that this will be FLL Ontario's 10-year anniversary and is an exciting time to join the movement of changing our culture to one in which Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) is celebrated and where becoming a technology hero is something to which our kids will aspire!
To join the movement and register your team, on May 7th go to: https://gofll.usfirst.org/. Keep in mind that sometimes the registration system is overloaded with registrations right at noon and persistence and/or patience may be required. :)
I am very excited to let you know that once again, FIRST Robotics Canada will be offering grants to support the growth of new teams. If you are interested in starting an FLL team at your school or organizations, please review "How to start an FLL team". There are additional links on that page which outlines time commitments and costs.
To receive the grant money to support your new team, please review these instructions.
The actual document you need to submit to receive the funding can be downloaded from here. Grants will be administered in a first-come first served manner and it is anticipated that they will go fast.
There will also be limited (30) grants for existing FLL and/or FRC teams to mentor a new FLL team so if you're an existing FLL team from one of our previous years and want to get a neighbouring school or community group involved and would like some money for your own team, FIRST Robotics Canada has set aside thirty $250 grants for FLL or FRC teams who would like to receive this grant (expectations of you as a mentor are outlined in the FLL Mentor Application and the FRC Mentor Application).
There will also be grants for Jr. FLL (for kids 6-9 years old) which will open for registration in August - for more information on Jr. FLL, please see www.jrfirstlegoleague.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and/or FLL Ontario's Blog in order to receive immediate updates on the FLL and Jr. FLL funding as it becomes available.
Go FIRST!
Dave
Dave Ellis
Director, FLL Ontario
FIRST Robotics Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
Monday, October 17, 2011
6th Coach Email blast
Hello teams,
Welcome to another wonderful week of FLL! :) I have some VERY important issues to address in this email so please make sure to read through each one.
1) Tournament Registration
2) Robot Design Executive Summary - RDES (Robot presentation requirement - NEW this year!)
3) Advancement Policy to move from Qualifying Tournament to Provincial Championships
4) Training Opportunities - don't miss out!
1) Tournament Registration
Tournament registration closes this Friday. If you have not registered for your qualifying tournament, please do so by the end of this week. They are on a first-come, first-served basis with some consideration given to geography. If you are new to FLL this year, please note that the registration you did in September was your "TEAM Registration". What we're talking about now is your "TOURNAMENT Registration" and this IS separate. Please go to this page on our site to find the tournaments available. On a side note, our Ottawa tournament is still looking for teams so if are interested in heading East to the beautiful city of Ottawa for field trip, please go ahead and sign up for that.
2) Robot Design Executive Summary (RDES)
The RDES is a pilot in which Ontario is participating. In a nutshell, it's something you need to create ahead of time to use during the Robot Design Judging session to provide a structured way for the judges to get to know what's going on with your robot. There is a document attached to this email outlining the full details of the RDES. Please read through it and make sure you are prepared. All tournaments in Ontario, including the Provincial Championships, will be following this new procedure for the Robot Design Judging process.
3) Advancement Policy
Teams often ask about how they can move on to the next stage. First of all, please keep in mind that the goal of FLL is not to "get to the next level" or "win an award", but to inspire children with respect to science and technology and to ensure they have fun throughout the process/experience. Each tournament they attend (whether it is a qualifier or the provincials) should be viewed as a celebration of their learning and a chance to learn from the other fantastic teams they meet.
Having said that, here is the information regarding advancement:
For the purposes of advancement to Provincial Championships, teams at tournaments will be assessed against the Champions' criteria and ranked accordingly against the other teams at the tournament. Each tournament is allocated a certain number of advancement "spots" based on the size of the tournament (ie. the more teams at a tournament, the more spots that tournament will be given at the Provincial Championships based on a standard percentage). So, if the tournament you're attending is sending three teams on to the Provincial Championships then your team would have to be one of the top 3 teams ranked according to the Champions' criteria. More information about this can be found on the FLL FAQ page located here: http://firstlegoleague.org/
4) Training Opportunities!
This week we have our last two training webinars for coaches and a fantastic symposium on Saturday. All training past, present, and future is FREE - all details can be found here.
Tuesday 7 p.m. Online: Core Values and Research Project
Wednesday, 7 p.m. Online: Intermediate Programming 102
Saturday, 9 a.m. Face-to-face: FIRST Robotics Symposium with many workshops planned.
By the way, if you've missed any of my email blasts or don't want to do a search for them in your inbox, they are all posted on my blog here.
Take care and have a great week!
Dave
Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
Welcome to another wonderful week of FLL! :) I have some VERY important issues to address in this email so please make sure to read through each one.
1) Tournament Registration
2) Robot Design Executive Summary - RDES (Robot presentation requirement - NEW this year!)
3) Advancement Policy to move from Qualifying Tournament to Provincial Championships
4) Training Opportunities - don't miss out!
1) Tournament Registration
Tournament registration closes this Friday. If you have not registered for your qualifying tournament, please do so by the end of this week. They are on a first-come, first-served basis with some consideration given to geography. If you are new to FLL this year, please note that the registration you did in September was your "TEAM Registration". What we're talking about now is your "TOURNAMENT Registration" and this IS separate. Please go to this page on our site to find the tournaments available. On a side note, our Ottawa tournament is still looking for teams so if are interested in heading East to the beautiful city of Ottawa for field trip, please go ahead and sign up for that.
2) Robot Design Executive Summary (RDES)
The RDES is a pilot in which Ontario is participating. In a nutshell, it's something you need to create ahead of time to use during the Robot Design Judging session to provide a structured way for the judges to get to know what's going on with your robot. There is a document attached to this email outlining the full details of the RDES. Please read through it and make sure you are prepared. All tournaments in Ontario, including the Provincial Championships, will be following this new procedure for the Robot Design Judging process.
3) Advancement Policy
Teams often ask about how they can move on to the next stage. First of all, please keep in mind that the goal of FLL is not to "get to the next level" or "win an award", but to inspire children with respect to science and technology and to ensure they have fun throughout the process/experience. Each tournament they attend (whether it is a qualifier or the provincials) should be viewed as a celebration of their learning and a chance to learn from the other fantastic teams they meet.
Having said that, here is the information regarding advancement:
For the purposes of advancement to Provincial Championships, teams at tournaments will be assessed against the Champions' criteria and ranked accordingly against the other teams at the tournament. Each tournament is allocated a certain number of advancement "spots" based on the size of the tournament (ie. the more teams at a tournament, the more spots that tournament will be given at the Provincial Championships based on a standard percentage). So, if the tournament you're attending is sending three teams on to the Provincial Championships then your team would have to be one of the top 3 teams ranked according to the Champions' criteria. More information about this can be found on the FLL FAQ page located here: http://firstlegoleague.org/
4) Training Opportunities!
This week we have our last two training webinars for coaches and a fantastic symposium on Saturday. All training past, present, and future is FREE - all details can be found here.
Tuesday 7 p.m. Online: Core Values and Research Project
Wednesday, 7 p.m. Online: Intermediate Programming 102
Saturday, 9 a.m. Face-to-face: FIRST Robotics Symposium with many workshops planned.
By the way, if you've missed any of my email blasts or don't want to do a search for them in your inbox, they are all posted on my blog here.
Take care and have a great week!
Dave
Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
Friday, October 14, 2011
5th Coach Email blast
For a few weeks now I've been promoting the Oakville Robotics Symposium on the 22nd. Hopefully you saved the date and are ready to register. The workshops being provided are by current and past coaches with tons of great experience. I've attached the list of workshops that will be available to you - as promised, there's something for everyone! Whether you are a rookie or a veteran, I would highly recommend you attend if at all possible. This is a mentor-only event so please leave the kids at home. You may bring your own robot, pieces, and laptop if you wish to build and program throughout the day.
To register for the event please go here, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the FLL registration link.
This is a video walking you through the workshop sign-up sheet if you need it.
Chris Hadfield will also be speaking to the entire group of attendees at the end of the day. It's going to be a great event you won't want to miss!
Looking forward to seeing you there,
Dave
Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
To register for the event please go here, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the FLL registration link.
This is a video walking you through the workshop sign-up sheet if you need it.
Chris Hadfield will also be speaking to the entire group of attendees at the end of the day. It's going to be a great event you won't want to miss!
Looking forward to seeing you there,
Dave
Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
4th Email Blast to Coaches
Hello everyone,
The big news today is that Tournament Registration is now officially open. You can find all the information regarding the tournaments on this page of our site. Some tournaments are using the Team Registration and Events (TRE) system to handle registration (the same system in which you registered your team). Some are simply asking you to email the Tournament Director directly. Either way, the information is posted on our site.
The second thing is that I want to make sure that you're all aware of the upcoming training available, both online and face-to-face - PLEASE take advantage of these great resources for you and your team to succeed. This week we have a session on what to expect with respect to judging at a tournament (tonight) and a session on robot building (Thursday night - NOTE date change). We have more online sessions next week and the list can be found here. In addition, we're having a FIRST Robotics Symposium at St. Mildred's Lightbourne School in Oakville on Saturday, October 22nd. General details regarding that day can be found here but a tentative schedule of FLL workshops are listed in the attachment. Please take advantage of these training opportunities as much as possible. The Symposium looks like a great day with Chris Hadfield rounding out the day!
Dave
Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
The big news today is that Tournament Registration is now officially open. You can find all the information regarding the tournaments on this page of our site. Some tournaments are using the Team Registration and Events (TRE) system to handle registration (the same system in which you registered your team). Some are simply asking you to email the Tournament Director directly. Either way, the information is posted on our site.
The second thing is that I want to make sure that you're all aware of the upcoming training available, both online and face-to-face - PLEASE take advantage of these great resources for you and your team to succeed. This week we have a session on what to expect with respect to judging at a tournament (tonight) and a session on robot building (Thursday night - NOTE date change). We have more online sessions next week and the list can be found here. In addition, we're having a FIRST Robotics Symposium at St. Mildred's Lightbourne School in Oakville on Saturday, October 22nd. General details regarding that day can be found here but a tentative schedule of FLL workshops are listed in the attachment. Please take advantage of these training opportunities as much as possible. The Symposium looks like a great day with Chris Hadfield rounding out the day!
Dave
Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
Monday, October 3, 2011
3rd Email blast to Food Factor Coaches
Hello Coaches,
I hope you're having a great time with the kids so far this season! Here's your third blast from me this season. In this blast you'll have info about Team Registration and Tournament Registration, as well as upcoming Coach Training (if you've missed any of my blasts you can check them out on my blog here).
1) The Team Registration system is now closed. Final registrations are being processed and a grand total will be announced shortly but we have had a HUGE growth in Ontario this season which is VERY exciting! Welcome to all the new teams across Ontario - there are over 100 of you!!
2) Tournament Registration will open soon. We're just working out final details on those tournaments and an email blast will come out to you in the next week with final details regarding Tournament Registration. Keep an eye for that email!!
3) Lastly, our Online Coach Training series continues this week with a workshop on Wednesday evening starting at 7 p.m. This week's topic: Intermediate Programming 101. Next week's topic is also a hot one for many teams: "Everything U Wanted to Know About Judging". Get all the details and tons of other resources (including downloadable archives of past weeks' topics) here. The rest of the series will be posted shortly.
Have a great week everyone!
Dave
Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
I hope you're having a great time with the kids so far this season! Here's your third blast from me this season. In this blast you'll have info about Team Registration and Tournament Registration, as well as upcoming Coach Training (if you've missed any of my blasts you can check them out on my blog here).
1) The Team Registration system is now closed. Final registrations are being processed and a grand total will be announced shortly but we have had a HUGE growth in Ontario this season which is VERY exciting! Welcome to all the new teams across Ontario - there are over 100 of you!!
2) Tournament Registration will open soon. We're just working out final details on those tournaments and an email blast will come out to you in the next week with final details regarding Tournament Registration. Keep an eye for that email!!
3) Lastly, our Online Coach Training series continues this week with a workshop on Wednesday evening starting at 7 p.m. This week's topic: Intermediate Programming 101. Next week's topic is also a hot one for many teams: "Everything U Wanted to Know About Judging". Get all the details and tons of other resources (including downloadable archives of past weeks' topics) here. The rest of the series will be posted shortly.
Have a great week everyone!
Dave
Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
www.firstroboticscanada.org
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