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FLL Submerged Blog: Volume 19

by | Feb 5, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

In this weeks Blog-

Congratulations to all FLL Challenge teams! 

FLL Explore Spring Event Details

Make sure you read the entire blog!

Season Info

Congratulations Challenge teams!

Congratulations to all the teams that participated in FLL Challenge this season!

For perspective-

We held-

  • 20 Qualifiers
  • 4 Semifinals
  • 2 State Championships

There were 482 Challenge teams competing in events this season!

Your teams should be very proud of what they have accomplished this season!

I look forward to seeing what they come up with next season!

 

 

Huge Congratulations to the 4 teams moving on from the 2 Championship events!

Our 2 teams advancing to the World Festival in Houston, TX

  • 46665 Intelligent  Mavericks from Richland, WA
  • 52539 Super Awesome Ninjas from Redmond, WA

Our 2 teams advancing to Open Invitationals

  • 55142 Oceanic Outlaws from Royal City, WA
  • 57637 The Flaming Cyber Tigers from Bellevue, WA

Open Invitational Lottery

The Champions award finalist teams (one from East and one from West) will get first choice out of the below FLL Open Events.

Once the finalists have chosen, the remaining open spots will open for signups to the award winning teams from the 2 state championships.

Teams will be selected at random for each event going in the order of the list below, so make sure you only choose events you can/want to actually attend.

If there are remaining spots, the sign up will open to teams that attended the state events.

Massachusetts- 2 spots (June 13-15, 2025)

California- 2 1 spot (May 30-June 1, 2025)- one spot claimed by a finalist

Florida- 2 spots (June 24-28, 2025)

New Jersey- 3 spots (May 17-18, 2025)

Greece- 1 spot (May 2-4, 2025)

The form will be emailed directly to the award winning teams from the 2 state championships after 2/10

FLL Explore Spring Events

Event hosts are making final arrangemants to their schedules now. 

The information I have-

Sammamish will be a morning event on Sunday

Snohomish will most likely be an afternoon event on Saturday. 

No details on Bonney Lake yet. 

Adding an event at EWU in April. I do not have the details yet, but will be adding it to the registration form. 

 

FLL Explore Registration

All Explore teams interested in attending events in Washington are required to fill out 2 forms from FIRST Washington and pay our $50 fee. 

One form is a registration form with FIRST Washington, the other is an event registration. Teams may not attend an event without having these 3 things completed. 

FIRST Washington registration- https://firstwa.org/explore-registration/ 

Event registration- https://firstwa.org/explore-event-registration/ 

 

More From FLL

FRC Reefscape Blog: Volume 16

by | Feb 4, 2025 | FRC, Newsletter

Workshop Request and Quiet Room Deadline is THIS FRIDAY!

I know many teams enjoy hosting workshops at events.  As of right now, only 2 teams have signed up to host a workshop.  The deadline for submitting a workshop request is this Friday, February 7th. So if your team is interested in hosting a workshop, make sure to sign up and submit your slide prior to the deadline! Complete the form via the button below:

Event Workshop

Quiet Room

The Quiet Room has been a popular and welcome addition to our events.  We are hoping to continue offering quiet rooms at our events but need help from all of you.  We need to change how our quiet rooms are staff to ensure that the volunteers have gone through youth protection screening so they will now need to sign up as a quiet room volunteer through their dashboard.  The Volunteer Coordinator for the event(s) your team signs up to host, will communicate with your point person to share contact information for the people that volunteer for that role (they should be the people your team is recruiting).  As of right now, we have only had one team sign up to be a quiet room host. Especially with the additional layer of coordination, we will be unable to allow quiet room hosts to sign up at the last minute so please be sure to sign up before the deadline if you are interested in hosting/coordinating the quiet room at one of our events. Complete the form via the button below:

Quiet Room

Both forms will close Friday, February 7th and we will not accept submissions after the deadline. 

Event Accommodation Form

This is likely the last time I will send this out in a blog.  Just a reminder, if you have participants on your team that need accommodations, please submit your request via the button below.

We are a small staff. The later you make the accommodation request, the more difficult it is for us to meet your participants needs.  It is important to us that all participants get the best experience possible, but we cannot help your team if we are unaware of accommodation needs! It is extremely difficult to make venue changes when an event has already started, so help us help you! 

Examples of Accommodations: 

  • Mobility differences – Maybe your have a mentor that uses a wheelchair or crutches, and you want to confirm the best way for them to navigate the venue.
  • Hearing differences – Maybe you have a students who utilize cochlear implants, or students that utilizes an interpreter, and you’d like to discuss how we can better support them! 

We cannot always provide the exact solutions requested, but we will have a better chance of providing support if we know ahead of time!

*The examples above are broad generalizations.

We try to use person-first language, and make general examples so coaches and mentors are more likely to identify that they need to complete this form. We understand that everyone’s abilities are personal and will vary. It is always our intent to refer to individuals as they identify. We thank you for your understanding and hope this form helps us make events more inclusive for all! 

Event Accommodations

District Event Briefing 2-13 at 7:00 PM

Our District Event Briefing is scheduled for next Thursday, Feb 13 at 7:00 pm.  We will be going over the general details for all of our district events so it is important that you have one adult attend.  

We will be working to ensure the links on the calendar match the links that we are sending out so we don’t have the confusion that we had on our last meeting.

There are no upcoming events at this time.

Important Dates

FRC Reefscape Blog: Volume 15

by | Jan 29, 2025 | FRC, Newsletter

Coaches Chat Recording is Live

You can watch the recording or read the slides from the January Coaches Chat here:

FIRST WA Webinars

Workshop Request and Quiet Room Deadline is Fast Approaching!

I know many teams enjoy hosting workshops at events.  As of right now, only 1 team has signed up to host a workshop.  The deadline for submitting a workshop request is next Friday so if your team is interested in hosting a workshop, make sure to sign up and submit your slide prior to the deadline! Complete the form via the button below:

Event Workshop

Quiet Room

The Quiet Room has been a popular and welcome addition to our events.  We are hoping to continue offering quiet rooms at our events but need help from all of you.  We need to change how our quiet rooms are staff to ensure that the volunteers have gone through youth protection screening so they will now need to sign up as a quiet room volunteer through their dashboard.  The Volunteer Coordinator for the event(s) your team signs up to host, will communicate with your point person to share contact information for the people that volunteer for that role (they should be the people your team is recruiting).  As of right now, we have only had one team sign up to be a quiet room host. Especially with the additional layer of coordination, we will be unable to allow quiet room hosts to sign up at the last minute so please be sure to sign up before the deadline if you are interested in hosting/coordinating the quiet room at one of our events. Complete the form via the button below:

Quiet Room

Both forms will close Friday, February 7th and we will not accept submissions after the deadline. 

Event Accommodation Form

This is likely the last time I will send this out in a blog.  Just a reminder, if you have participants on your team that need accommodations, please submit your request via the button below.

We are a small staff. The later you make the accommodation request, the more difficult it is for us to meet your participants needs.  It is important to us that all participants get the best experience possible, but we cannot help your team if we are unaware of accommodation needs! It is extremely difficult to make venue changes when an event has already started, so help us help you! 

Examples of Accommodations: 

  • Mobility differences – Maybe your have a mentor that uses a wheelchair or crutches, and you want to confirm the best way for them to navigate the venue.
  • Hearing differences – Maybe you have a students who utilize cochlear implants, or students that utilizes an interpreter, and you’d like to discuss how we can better support them! 

We cannot always provide the exact solutions requested, but we will have a better chance of providing support if we know ahead of time!

*The examples above are broad generalizations.

We try to use person-first language, and make general examples so coaches and mentors are more likely to identify that they need to complete this form. We understand that everyone’s abilities are personal and will vary. It is always our intent to refer to individuals as they identify. We thank you for your understanding and hope this form helps us make events more inclusive for all! 

 

Event Accommodations

Important Dates

FTC Blog Into the Deep: Volume 17

by | Jan 29, 2025 | FTC, Newsletter

FTC State Championship

Where: Amazon Meeting Center 2031 – 7th Ave. Seattle, WA 98121 

Parking: Parking in the doppler garage is free starting at 7:00 am. 

FTC State is open to all teams to attend.  It can be a great experience for your students to see the top teams compete against each other.   

Amazon requires that everyone who enters the meeting center register.  What does this mean for spectators? 

  • Any one over 18 will need to show ID 
  • If you bring your entire team and have not pre-registered, plan for it to take 15 minutes or so to get everyone registered and badged. 
  • If you are not competing, please wait until after 9:00 am to arrive, prior to that, we want the focus to be getting participating team students, mentors and their families inside the building. 
  • If you are bringing your team as a group, you can fill out an excel spreadsheet to pre register.  You will need to have that spreadsheet to me by noon on Jan 27th so I can pass the info along to Amazon.  Send me an email if you would like a copy of the spreadsheet sent to you to fill out.   

What State Champs LIVE!

Can’t attend the FTC State Championship? No problem! Tune into the event live via our Twitch Stream. 

Watch LIVE!

FTC State Champs Schedule:

11:15 AM  Opening Ceremonies 
11:30 AM – 12:05 PM  Qualification Matches 
12:05 PM – 12:50 PM  Lunch 
12:50 PM – 3:50 PM  Qualification Matches 
4:05 AM  Alliance Selection 
4:30 PM  Playoff Matches & Awards 

Important Dates & Deadlines

  • February 1:  FTC State

FTC Blog Into the Deep: Volume 16

by | Jan 23, 2025 | FTC, Newsletter

Compass Award Submissions due by Friday

All teams are eligible to submit for the Compass award whether they are moving on to the State Championship or not.

For more information on the requirements for submitting for the compass award, see the game manual here:  https://ftc-resources.firstinspires.org/file/ftc/game/manual-06

You can submit for the Compass award via the button below. The deadline for submission is Friday, January 24th.  No late submissions will be accepted.

Compass Award Submission

FTC State Championship

Where: Amazon Meeting Center 2031 – 7th Ave. Seattle, WA 98121 

Parking: Parking in the doppler garage is free starting at 7:00 am. 

FTC State is open to all teams to attend.  It can be a great experience for your students to see the top teams compete against each other.   

Amazon requires that everyone who enters the meeting center register.  What does this mean for spectators? 

  • Any one over 18 will need to show ID 
  • If you bring your entire team and have not pre-registered, plan for it to take 15 minutes or so to get everyone registered and badged. 
  • If you are not competing, please wait until after 9:00 am to arrive, prior to that, we want the focus to be getting participating team students, mentors and their families inside the building. 
  • If you are bringing your team as a group, you can fill out an excel spreadsheet to pre register.  You will need to have that spreadsheet to me by noon on Jan 27th so I can pass the info along to Amazon.  Send me an email if you would like a copy of the spreadsheet sent to you to fill out.   

Important Dates & Deadlines

  • February 1:  FTC State