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FIRST Washington ▸ News ▸ City Shaper Coach Email Volume 3- 6/25/19 SPIKE PRIME and Grant Info
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    • City Shaper Coach Email Volume 3- 6/25/19 SPIKE PRIME and Grant Info

    Greetings Coaches! Welcome to CITY SHAPER!

      If you are new to this email this is the place where you will find all of the Washington specific FIRST LEGO League information. Coaches and team administrators in the FIRST system for the CITY SHAPER season will be added weekly. Starting this season, every email from me will be numbered. That number lets you know which update it is, if you miss an update you can find it on our website. 

    I have 4 items for you today-

    1.       SPIKE PRIME

    2.       Arizona Invitational in July still looking for teams

    3.       Global Innovation Award People’s Choice and Tune In

    4.       FIRST Washington Grant

    5.       Team Registration at firatinspires.org open

    –

    SPIKE PRIME

    Several Coaches have asked about SPIKE PRIME. Here’s my take after seeing it up close.

    SPIKE PRIME will be a great option for new teams and those without coaches with programing experience. It is not meant to replace the EV3, but to be another option for teams to use. It falls between the WeDo 2.0 and the EV3 in LEGO Education’s product lineup.

    Working through the tutorial it is very easy to build and program using the Scratch based programing for SPIKE PRIME. Even without the screen, it is easy to find and choose a program once downloaded. The large LED interface makes it easy to scroll though the numbered programs, choose and go. I liked the more colorful aspect of the bricks, and it does come with some different parts than the EV3, but the same sensors.

    Overall I think it is a great addition to LEGO Educations products, and for new teams or teams with less technical coaches it will take some of the difficulty out of the experience.

    –

    Arizona Invitational in July

    Good afternoon everyone,

    We are looking for more teams (FLL & FTC) to join us in Flagstaff, Arizona at the Lunar Legacy Invitational.  We have spots open in both programs (disregard the previous deadline).  If you know of more teams that are interested, please share this information with them.  We currently have teams from Hong Kong, Lebanon, Romania, Indiana, California, and Arizona.  We would like to encourage more teams to join us here at 7,000 ft. 

     

    Attached is more information that can be shared in addition to the link below to apply/register.  Once a team applies/registers an acceptance letter will be sent out to confirm their registration.

    https://nau.edu/cstl/robotics/

    Patricia (Patti) Strones
    FIRST ®  AmeriCorps VISTA, Southwest Region

    –

    Global Innovation Award People’s Choice and Tune In 

     The FIRST® LEGO® League Global Innovation Award is a week from today in San Jose, California. New for 2019 is a People’s Choice Award. Please check out our 20 Semi-Finalist teams, cast your vote, and celebrate kids as future innovators!  Voting is open through the ceremony broadcast until July 2 at 6:35 PT (Pre-Show team interviews start at 4:30 PT). Tune in onFIRSTtv to cheer them on.

    –

    FIRST Washington Grant

    The FIRST Washington grant is now open and we encourage teams who are participating in FIRST LEGO League to apply, https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/8e944e032ad74f98864853f98fa03a44.  For teams/schools who have funds that need to be spent by end of this school year, you can send a PO to FIRST Washington, attn. Kyle Thomas, kylet@firstwa.org  to secure your 2019-2020 FIRST Washington registration fee.

    As mentioned in an earlier communication to all programs, the FIRST Washington fee for FLL will see a modest increase this season. The fee for this season will be $350.00. This is in addition to your team registration fee you pay at firstinspires.org to register your team.

    OSPI iGrant– No date yet, but stay tuned! I will send out an email as soon as I get an opening date!

    –

    Registration is Now Open!

    Registration for new and returning teams is open now!  Registration closes when our region reaches capacity for the season, so register early!  If capacity is available, registration will stay open until the end of September or early October (but is not guaranteed to be open that late).

    Returning coaches can log into your account at: www.firstinpires.org.  There you will have the opportunity to register your teams for another year.  Please look at the notifications in the upper right corner and take care of the consent and release and required profile updates.

    New coaches can start a team at this link: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll/start-a-team

    *A note on registration. They did add the option to opt out of the challenge set for those registering multiple teams that don’t need multiple sets, but there is no way to buy the challenge set at a later time. If you opt out you WILL NOT be able to go back and order one separately.  

     

    Upcoming Events/Dates

    • August 1: Challenge Released
    • December 7&8: Qualifier Tournaments
    • December 14&15: Qualifier Tournaments

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