If you look at the illustration of scoring areas at http://firstlegoleague.org/community/uploadedFiles/FLL/The_Challenge/The_Game/Diagrams/m
atshots4missionsA.pdf
you will see that the thick green line is only part of the low-lying shores, and not of the green grid 
area.  Although the referee may use Benefit of the Doubt to call an object near the edge of the 
line/edge of the grid as touching the grid, it is better if you don't have to rely on it (i.e. if the 
robot is doing the mission in a repeatable fashion, then it is best to ensure that the bike, 
insulation, or laptop is clearly touching the grid part, and let Benefit of the Doubt come into play 
only when something is a little bit off.)

Yes, "touching" means only that some part of the object is touching the grid area, and not that the 
whole object must also be in the grid area.  The mission will state when an object must be 
completely in a scoring area to count.
The "Insulate a House", "Ride a Bicycle", and "Telecommute and Research" missions require the 
scoring object to be touching the green grid area.  Similarly, "Construct Levees", and "Get People 
Together" require some part of each levee and citizen to be touching the scoring area to count.  In 
contrast, the "Bury Carbon Dioxide", "Fund Research or Corrective Action", "Deliver and Ice Core 
Drilling Machine", "Deliver an Ice Buoy", "Study Wildlife", and "Beat the Clock" missions explicitly 
state that the objects must not be touching the mat outside the scoring area.

Best wishes for your team!
Steve

On Sat, 8 Nov 2008 08:53:42 -0500, Kevin and Stephanie Burke <[log in to unmask]> 
wrote:

>If the bike, insulation or laptop touch the thick green line, but don't
>happen to touch the grid area, does that count?  I see descriptions of the
>grid areas both with and without the lines.
>
>I also read "touching" to mean that the pieces don't have to be completely
>inside the grid areas.
>
>Thanks, Stephanie
>>
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