Thursday, September 22, 2016

FIRST LEGO League Jr Migrates the Newsletter to a Blog!

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Jr Oregon,

From now on, all updates will now come as both an email and as a blog post. Because of the nature of the FIRST LEGO League Jr program, all of our teams are at all different stages of the program throughout the year. Hopefully, this new format will make it easier to find advice for your team at the time you need it.

In this update you will find:

  1. OMSI Information Night
  2. WeDo 2.0 Training Night
  3. LEGO Education Information Day for Teachers
  4. Registration Details for Creature Craze
  5. Creature Craze Oregon Expos!
1) OMSI Information Night
I am happy to announce that I will be hosting a FIRST LEGO League Jr Information Night at OMSI on October 11th at 6:00pm. We will be meeting in Classroom 1. Please sign up using the form if you are able to attend. I want to make sure I have enough for everyone.



2) WeDo 2.0 Training Night
On Tuesday, October 18, I will be back at OMSI to specifically address questions about the new LEGO WeDo 2.0 system. I hope to help you understand the system and see what it would look like to use this OPTIONAL system with your FIRST LEGO League Jr team.


3) LEGO Education Information Day for Teachers
LEGO Education will be in Oregon with a free workshop for teachers specifically talking about using WeDo 2.0 and LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3. It will all be in Albany at Linn-Benton Community College on October 14th. If you are a teacher, I hope you can join us!  Please register here

4) Registration Details for Creature Craze
If you are not one of the 17 teams already registered to participate in FIRST LEGO Leauge Jr this year, you will notice several changes this season! The forms used to register your team are different. If you are with a school or afterschool group, you may want to consider the site license option that opens in October. Also, what you receive will be different this year as well, so it is critical that you include an accurate shipping address, not a P.O. Box!

To register your team, this year you log in at www.firstinspires.org. Your login information has transferred if you had a FIRST account last year, but you don't need to go any further than the login button on the top right of the screen to get started. After you have updated your profile, you will see last year's team on your Dashboard. You will also see any other FIRST teams you are affiliated with. If you don't have any teams, you want to Start A Team!

Each team must have 2 Adults listed as Coach/Mentor 1 and Coach/Mentor 2. A Team Admin is optional. Both coaches must complete their YPP and Consent form. This can be found under the Outstanding Tasks on each person's Dashboard. After that is complete you may register the team by paying the $75 National Registration. When you do, a box with the Inspire Model, a kit of Elise the bee and her hive, 6 Engineering Notebooks, and a Coach's Guide will be shipped to you - it will not come via USPS, this is why you need a valid shipping address.

Your coach's guide will sync with the engineering notebooks to guide the entire team through 12 sessions of Creature Craze!  Your registration will NOT include any LEGO other than the Inspire Model. If your team wants LEGO or a WeDo system, you will need to use the Purchase Product button on the Dashboard, after your national registration has been paid.

I'll have the details on how to register a site license in October!

4) Creature Craze Oregon Expos!
There was not significant interest in having a November expo this year. We need at least 18 teams to do this. However, we will be having some very exciting spring expos!

  • March 18 & 19 at OMSI Auditorium  - we will hold 4 separate expos on those two days
  • May 6 at Evergreen Space Museum
  • May in The Dalles or Hood River
One other warning! If you are registering your FIRST LEGO League Jr Team, please be aware the FIRST website may be down on September 29th for FIRST Robotics Competition registration that day.

Best Wishes,
Loridee


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