BB2 - A Dynamite Season!

Greetings FIRST LEGO Leauge Jr Oregon,

In this update you will find:

1. Information Sessions around Oregon
2. Expo Registration Arches Expo Open!
3. Team Financial Support Available
4. FIRST LEGO League Jr: Discovery Edition
5. How to get started

Read this update as a blog

Welcome to BOOMTOWN BUILD! All coaches in Oregon are automatically added to this mailing list. Teams in neighboring communities are welcome to participate in Oregon Expos provided there is space.  If you have missed an email from Oregon you may read the archive on our blog, or see the important links on our website. Official updates and program materials can be found on the FIRST LEGO League Jr Challenge website.

1) Information Sessions around Oregon

FIRST LEGO League Jr and FIRST LEGO League Jr: Discovery Edition are building a strong foundation in teamwork and STEM for kids all across Oregon. To help spread the word, I will be hosting several Information Sessions. The first of them is scheduled to start this week!  If you are starting a team, curious about how to get your child started, or ready to bring a FIRST LEGO League Jr program into your school please join us at an information night near you!

2) Expo Registration Arches Expo Open!

We have our first confirmed Oregon expo open for teams now! If your team is working this fall, the Arches Expo is your expo! Our next scheduled expo will be in March or April (still working on locations). To apply to attend the Arches Expo please complete an application on this page and make your payment.

Arches will take place at Washington Square Mall on November 9th from 11-2pm. Team members will be in a roped off area where they can safely share their LEGO models with our teen reviewers, sponsors, and the general public. We are very excited to be able to offer this new fall opportunity for FIRST LEGO League Jr Oregon!

3) Team Financial Support Available

For the first time since I've been with FIRST LEGO League Jr Oregon, we are offering team financial support for FIRST LEGO League Jr teams anywhere in the state! We are so happy that our sponsors recognize the importance of early STEM skills and are ready to support our teams in this way. We can't fund every team, but we can help teams that meet certain requirements.  Please look over the ORTOP FIRST LEGO League Jr Team Financial Support page before you apply.  Priority will be given to teams that demonstrate financial need for their team, readiness to run the program, and good understanding and strategies to implement inclusive ideas and techniques around diversity.  

4) FIRST LEGO League Jr: Discovery Edition

FIRST LEGO League Jr: Discovery Edition is a brand new introductory to teamwork and engineering thinking for our youngest engineers. Each team needs an adult or two to facilitate meetings and 2-4 students who are Pre-K through 1st grade. Teams can form any time in the year, however; FIRST LEGO League Jr: Discovery is currently only available in groups of 7, so ORTOP has created a form where coaches who want to participate in this program can be matched with nearby teams to complete this program.

Each team will meet 9 times and work on a series of activities that are described in the Team Meeting Guide. For the final activity the 7 teams in the cohort will meet at a public location to have a joint activity. This program uses LEGO Duplo and the LEGO Steampark set to introduce team engineering skills and critical thinking about real-world problems in the challenge theme. This year's theme is BOOMTOWN BUILD.

We are happy to work with any youth organization which would like to use this program as a course, class, or inside of an existing class structure. 

5) How to get started

Ready to get started with the fun of FIRST LEGO League Jr? Your first step is to identify your team.
You will need 2 adults to serve as Lead Mentors. Then you need 2-6 kids in Kindergarten through 4th grade. If your kids are 7 or younger we recommend no more than 4 kids on a team. Ready? Now it's time to register your team and make it official.

Go to www.firstinspires.org - if you don't have one already, take time to create your account. Your other Lead Mentor and all the parents will need an account too.
Once you are logged in, go to your Dashboard. This is where you will create and manage your team this season. Once everything is set up, you just need to pay the registration fee.

And then wait for your mail, your Inspire set, Team Meeting Guides, and Engineering notebooks will be on their way and you are all set for a remarkable adventure!

I'm very excited for the BOOMTOWN BUILD season. We have so many options for Oregon teams this year! I hope to see you soon at an Information Session or our November expo.  I will be out of the office for the remainder of this week and the first half of next week.  If you need to reach me please send an email, but do expect a delay in response.

I can't wait to see what your teams build!

Best Wishes,
Loridee


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