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FLL Blog Volume 18

by | Feb 6, 2024 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

FLL Blog Volume 18

Thank You Teams!!

This season we have almost 400 teams attend events in the State of Washington!

That is awesome!

It has been so much fun watching what your teams have accomplished this season! I hope to hear about all the projects that move forward and all that teams do in the off season!

Your teams should be so prould of what the learned this season! I know I am proud of them!

Awards and Advancement

Two teams moving on to World Festival in Houston Texas! Two teams moving on to Open Invitationals!

Our Eastern Washington Champions Award Winner and our Western Washington Champions Award Winner are both moving on to the World Festival in Houston Texas!

Congratulations to team 46665- Intelligent Mavericks from Richland, WA and to team 52060- Brickineers from Redmond WA!

I will see you in Houston!

Our Eastern Washington Champions Award Finalist and our Western Washington Champions Award Finalist are both moving on to the Open Invitational of their choice!

Congratulations to team 55142- Mushroom Monarchs from Royal City, WA and to team 39764- TUCOPSBI from Bellevue WA!

55142 is headed to the Western Edge Open in Long Beach California!

39764 has not yet decided! I can’t wait to see what they choose!

Additional Open Invitational spots

I will have 4 additional Invitational spots after both Finalist teams have chosen. The three Invitationals are listed below. 1 spot is already taken for Western Edge, and if the West Champions Finalist takes the other, then that open will no longer be an option. 

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Western Edge Open

May 31-June 2, 2024

Long Beach Convention Center

300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, California, USA, 90802

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WPI (WAFFLE) Open Invitational

June 7-9, 2024

Campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

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American Robotics Invitational

May 18-19, 2024

American Dream

East Rutherford, NJ USA

Submit a video thank you to the Washington State Legislature

FIRST Washington is hosting a Legislative Day on February 20th at the capitol building, where board members and staff will be advocating for STEAM funding on behalf of FIRST Washington teams. But we need your help! 

Interested in helping out? We need teams from all over the state to submit impactful videos showing the legislature why FIRST Washington programs are important to you! 

Your video does not have to be fancy, and we encourage everyone to get creative! 

But it should include the details below –

  1. Your team saying “Thank you to our State Legislators ______ and Governor Inslee for supporting FIRST Washington!”
  2. We are FIRST Washington team NAME, NUMBER, from SCHOOL in CITY.
  3. What does FIRST Washington mean to us? 
  4. Show what your team has been doing this season and how support from the legislature has helped your team. 

The video should be no longer than 5 minutes. Please send a shareable link with the video file to Outreach Manager Adrianna Miller adriannam@firstwa.org  by February 14th at 5:00pm.

The email should contain your – Program, team number, team name, school, city. 

It helps if you post your video on your team’s YouTube page and share the link with us, or have it online somewhere. This will be easier for us to show the videos to your legislators. 

 

FLL Blog Volume 17

by | Jan 9, 2024 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

January Coaches Chat

Because of the FTC Intertleage prep going on this week, I am moving the coaches chat to Tuesday, January 16th at 7pm.

This Coaches chat is for FLL Challenge teams. We will be discussing the Semifinal Events and the 2 State Championship events. I will also talk about the plans for the 3 different Open Invitationals I have spots for.

To attend the coaches chat, you can click the link below, or find it on the FIRSTWA Calendar.

Coaches Chat Link

Semifinal Team Lists Posted!

The team lists for each Semifinal are posted on the calendar event pages. The links are below in the locations section.

They are also updated on the Awards and Advancement sheet on the website.

I accommodated as many requests as I could, but there were a few I was unfortunately unable to accommodate.

Semifinal Locations

Covington-

Cedar Heights Middle School

19640 SE 272nd St.
Covington, WA 98042

https://firstwa.org/event/fll-picasso-semifinal/

https://firstwa.org/event/fll-bach-semifinal/

Seattle-

Ballard High School

1418 NW 65th St.
Seattle, WA 98117

https://firstwa.org/event/fll-monet-semifinal/ 

https://firstwa.org/event/fll-beethoven-semifinal/ 

 

FLL Blog Volume 16

by | Dec 13, 2023 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

What a great two weekends of FLL Events! I hope everyone that participated had fun!

Between Eastern and Western Washington, there were 14 FLL Challenge events and 3 FLL Explore events! 

I made it to 5 FLL Challenge events over the 2 weekends, and it was great to see the teams excitement!

We aren’t done with events yet! There are 4 FLL Challenge Semifinal and 2 State Championship events coming up in January and February! All these events are in need of volunteers. 

In March we have the next round of FLL Explore events with 2, one in Western Washington and one in Eastern Washington. 

Awards!

Awards are posted on the website!

Awards List

Semifinal Assignments!!

Semifinal assignments are posted to the far right on the award results sheet. The link is in the button above! 

 

All advancing teams have been assigned to a semifinal event. I tried my best to make sure schools were placed together. If you are unable to attend on the day you were assigned, please fill out the form at this link to request a switch. I will do my best to accomidate, but I can only switch teams out of an event if someone wants to switch into that event. Flexibility on location helps make it easier. Please indicate in the notes why the date does not work for your team. 

 

Semifinal Switch Form

FLL Blog Volume 15

by | Dec 6, 2023 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

Our First weekend of events is over! I hope all the teams attending had a fun time and learned a lot! I had a great time at the events I attended watching the teams and checking out what they coould do! 

Weekend 2 is coming up! Who’s excited! 

There are 6 events this weekend throughout the state. Check the calendar if you’d like to watch one near you! 

Calendar

FIRST LEGO League Participation Rules

There seems to be some confusion around the Participation rules for FIRST LEGO League Challenge. I have posted some highlights below, as well as a link to the entire document. This is readily available on FIRST’s website.

General Participation Rules- Some highlights

Teams, coaches, and other supporters must demonstrate the Core Values in their actions and activities.

All work presented at events is the work of the children on the team.

Competitive team Participation Rules- Some highlights

These additional rules apply to teams competing in qualifying events:

  • All work presented at an official event is the work of the children on the team.
  • A competitive team consists of a minimum of two (2) and a maximum of ten (10) children. Proper adult supervision is required as described in the FIRST® Youth Protection Policy.
  • A team must be registered and fully paid in their national registration system to sign up for official events. Additional regional/local event fees may apply.
  • All team members attending an event are required to participate in the judging session and be present as a team at the Robot Game matches.

Consequences- Some highlights

FIRST® gives authority to volunteers staffing FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge official events to interpret and implement the Participation Rules, guided by global FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge training materials.

  • Teams, coaches, and supporters at official events are expected to demonstrate the Core values and Gracious Professionalism®.
    • Individuals interfering with, excessively instructing, prompting, or heckling a team or volunteer may be asked to leave.
    • Severe infractions of these rules may result in a team’s dismissal from the event. FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge official event volunteers are provided training to identify and respond to these situations (See FIRST® Youth Protection Policy).
  • Individuals and/or teams who fail to abide by the Participation Rules may be ineligible for awards at a tournament.
Participation Rules
Award Results

Coming Soon to the Website!

Awards results page!

I will send out the link as soon as it is up!

Volunteers Needed!

We are still in need of volunteers for our Semifinal and State Championship Events!

If you are interested, or know someone who is, email Mara Kealey at marak@firstwa.org 

Event Locations and dates:

Semifinals

2 Events
January 20-21 Cedar Heights Middle School

2 Events
 January 20-21 Ballard High School

Eastern State Championship

January 27th, 2024 in Spokane at EWU

Western State Championship

February 4th, 2024 in Seattle at Amazon

FLL Blog Volume 14

by | Nov 28, 2023 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

FLL Blog Volume 14

Ready of not, here we go!

The first weekend of events is here!! 

Coaches Chats November 30th!

Tune in Next Tursday at 6:30 for FLL Explore and 7:00 for FLL Challenge for out November coaches chats! We will be talking about events!

Link to the coaches chat- https://bit.ly/novcoacheschat

Coaches Chat

Don’t forget to print your roster!

All teams attending an event must print a copy of their teams roster from their dashboard at firstinspires.org. In order to print, you must have 2 coaches listed and they both need to have passed FIRST’s youth protection screening (ypp).

Video chapters: 0:25 Creating your FIRST Account | 5:09 Creating your FIRST LEGO League Challenge Team | 11:16 Youth Protection Screening | 13:55 Ordering Product | 14:53 Important Sales Tax Information | 17:54 Completing your Order | 20:43 Outstanding Tasks you may need to Complete | 21:27 Inviting Coach and Youth Contacts to your Team | 24:13 Viewing and Printing your Team Roster

 

General Schedules

The General daily schedule for FLL Challenge events*-

8:00am – Teams Check in

8:30am – Coaches meeting

8:45am – Judging starts

12:45pm – Judging ends- Aprox. 

1:00 or 1:15pm – Opening ceremonies

1:15 or 1:30pm – Robot games start 

4:00 – 5:00 – Awards- Aprox. depends on the number of teams at the event

*This is a general schedule, you will receive detailed information from your event host. 

The General daily schedule for FLL Explore events*-

11:00am – Teams Check in

12:00pm – Pits open

1:00pm – Opening ceremony

1:15pm – Reviewing and activities begin 

1:00 or 1:15pm – Opening ceremonies

3:00pm – Festival ends – Closing celebration (Aprox.) 

4:00 – Awards- Cleanup

*This is a general schedule, you will receive detailed information from your event host. Length will vary due to number of teams attending. 

Volunteer’s Needed!

A few of our events really need additional volunteers, especially judges!

There is no experience needed to volunteer! All we ask is that it is at an event different than the one your team is attending! So, if your team is attending the Everett event on Saturday, why not sign up to volunteer to judge in Everett on Sunday!

If you have questions, or would like more information, please email Mara Kealey marak@firstwa.org

 

Events in greatest need are listed below!

^

Everett Saturday and Sunday 12-2 and 12-3

Event is located at Eisenhower Middle School in Everett. Judges Needed!

^

Federal Way Saturday and Sunday 12-9 and 12-10

Event is located at Thomas Jefferson High School in Auburn. Judges Needed!

FLL Blog Volume 13

by | Nov 21, 2023 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

FLL Blog Volume 13

Hello! 

Please read the entire blog, there is a lot of info this week! 

I hope everyone is ready for the upcoming events! Even if your team doesn’t fee ready, go to your event! The kids will learn so much and have a great time. I would bet you will find teans that are just as far along as you are! 

Teams and volunteers are there to help! Attend the coaches meeting in the morning, make sure the teams take advantage of practicing on the game tables so they know what to expect. The lighting and tables are different then they are at home. 

Our mats are brand new, so they are going to be slick and the robot may perform differently. If they practice on the game tables, the will have time to adjust if needed! 

Trust me, it helps! 🙂

If you have not yet, sign up to volunteer at an event your team is not participating at! You will get to see the judging process fro the other side and will be able to help your team better prepare for judging at future events! I have heard from multiple coaches that it has made them a better coach. Plus, you get a free t-shirt! You can email marak@firstwa.org for more info! 

 

Coaches Chats November 30th!

Tune in Next Tursday at 6:30 for FLL Explore and 7:00 for FLL Challenge for out November coaches chats! We will be talking about events!

Link to the coaches chat- https://bit.ly/novcoacheschat

Coaches Chat
Advancement

Advancement Numbers for FLL Challenge Events

Advancement numbers – *These numbers are subject to change based on team attendance the day of the event

 

Not sure which event you are attending? Check here- https://firstwa.org/fll-challenge-assignments-and-status/ 

FLL Challenge World Festival and Invitationals!

This season we have two slots for World Festival in Houston! One team will advance from each of the Championships!

We are also fortunate to have 4 Open Invitational spots! Two in California and two in Massachusetts! 

How the Invitational spots are decided I have not figured out yet 🙂

^

World Festival

In Houston, Texas April 17th-20th 2024

^

Western Edge Open Invitational

In Long Beach, California May 31st – June 2nd 2024

^

WPI Open Invitational

In Worcester, Massachusetts June 7th- 9th 2024

FLL Challenge Event Checklist!

Robot and attachments

  • Extra robot batteries and charger (if rechargeable)

Laptop computer or tablet for program changes

  • Make sure you know how to update without wifi!

Project Presentation

  • Any materials needed. FIRST WA does not provide any technology for teams to use.
  • If tech is needed, teams are resposible for providing, and must set up withing their 30 minute judging session.

Food, drinks and snacks (unless otherwise noted)

  • Some events have concessions available

Extension cord and power strip

Team Roster

  • Includes Consent  and Release indication for each student

Students registered online by parents in FIRST Dashboard

  • Paper consent forms if not registered online

A positive attitude and lots of enthusiasm to cheer for your team!