Greetings FIRST LEGO League Coaches! Welcome to CITY SHAPER!
*It has come to my attention that people are not receiving my emails the way I usually send them, so I am trying a new way. I apologize if you have unsubscribed through the website and are receiving an unwanted email. I will be sending emails this way in the future. Thanks for your patience.
If you are new to this email this is the place where you will find all of the Washington specificFIRSTLEGO League information. Coaches and team administrators in theFIRSTsystem 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 youcan find it on our website.
I have 4 items for you today-
1.Grants! Please Apply!!
2.Facebook group for coaches
3.Kickoff Events
4.FIRST Washington DEI Workshops
Grant Information!
Not many teams have applied for grants, especially OSPI! In order for us to continue to receive money from OSPI and other sources, we need you to apply so we can give you the money! The deadlines for the FIRST Washington and OSPI grants is September 19th! That is 10 days away! Do not wait! Apply now!
1.) United Technologies Corp. (UTC) and Collins Aerospace (formerly Rockwell Collins) grants
In the past these funds have been administered by FIRST Washington, but this season you need to apply for the grant yourself online. The grant deadline is today!
The United Technologies, Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Carrier, and Otis FIRST team grants are available to any team with an employee coach/mentor(s).
We also offer a competitive FIRST grant program to teams:
That have two or more of the following attributes:
·Newly formed FIRST team
·Team of High-need/Over 50% Free/Reduced Lunch rates
·Teams with over 50% makeup of underrepresented populations in STEM fields
Both grant programs are administered through this application form. Thank you for your interest in our FIRST Team Grants Program.
3.) OSPI iGrants: Open Now. Deadline September 19This generous grant is a building grant for Washington teams only who must compete in FIRST Washington competitions during the 2019-2020 school year. Teams must be public school-based or sponsored by the school. To complete the grant, please work with your school finance office or CTE, and they must log in under the school, not the district for these are building level grants.FIRST LEGO League: form 605
Other opportunities:
4.) Microsoft: Teams who have a Microsoft employee involved as a coach/mentor not only will benefit tremendously in building their programming, computer science and engineering skills and soft skills, Microsoft will generously match their hours of volunteering with your team at $25/hour. Many FIRST Washington teams leverage this generous partnership and we encourage you to go find a Microsoft employee and invite them to your team!
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Facebook Group for Coaches
One of the best ways to get questions answered is to connect with other FIRST LEGO League coaches.
Join our private Facebook group for Washington FIRST LEGO League coaches only. New and Veteran coaches and our Regional Head Refereeare members of the group. Use this link to join:
Please note: you will be asked a couple questions when you join, these are to help keep this group only open to coaches. It will speed up the joining process if you answer these when you apply.
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Kickoff Events!
We have several kickoff events this season! See below for details!
At: Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center (main building – not the annex)
127 S Mission St, Wenatchee, WA 98801
Agenda:
9:00 – 9:30 Doors open, Team Check in
9:30 – 10:00 Welcome introduction
10:00 – 10:30 Core Values Team Building Activity
10:30 – 11:00 Project Plans “Thinking like an Engineer” through projects
11:00 – 11:30 Robot Design (Introduction to the planning toolbox)
11:30 – 12:00 Wrap Up
Teams should plan to attend with their robots and devices. Additional devices will not be available, but there will be a complete practice board set up for planning. (Note: there will NOT be wifi available, so teams should plan to use direct connections or blue tooth to send code to the EV3s.)
Teams are welcome to bring snacks or sack lunches, but the event will wrap up promptly at noon to accommodate another event at 1PM in the Museum.
·Spokane: September 26th
Other details TBA
·Western Washington: Details TBA
We will be holding this event later than we usually do to help with the school teams forming in September. The format will also be changing slightly to accommodate for our team growth. This event will be a coaches workshop instead. .
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FIRST Washington’s DEI Workshops this fall!
With FIRST Washington’s commitment to equity and access, we are pleased to partner with three of our FIRST Robotics Competition teams to host half day workshops for all coaches, mentors and volunteers. We have a professional DEI facilitator, Tareena Joubert joining us for these days.
The goal of these workshops is to support our communities, coaches and mentors in welcoming all students. Part of the success in recruiting students is broadening our base of coaches/mentors and volunteers who look like students. Helping FIRST broaden our base of adults to include more women, persons of color, diverse professional backgrounds will help us position FIRST programs as inclusive and welcoming to all. Please join one of these workshop by signing up today to learn some tips and tools on how you can assist!
1.Saturday, September 28th: 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., Lewis and Clark High School, Spokane. Thank you Titanium Tigers, FRC team 2944 for hosting! RSVP: (Coming)
2.Saturday, October 5th: 10 a.m. -2 p.m. Seahome High School, Bellingham. Thank you Seamonsters, FRC team 2605 for hosting! RSVP here.
3.Saturday, November 16th, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., Environmental Learning Center, Point Defiance. Thank you SotBots, FRC team 2557 for hosting! RSVP here.
