On behalf of the Kilmer Middle School we would like to thanks the tournament
organizer, and everyone at FLL to allow the school to participate at the
TJHSST FLL Regional Tournament as "Volunteer Partner". We cannot believe
how much fun you can have working as volunteers at a regional tournament.
The students had a blast even though some were exhausted from their
competition the day before. Parents had so much fun as well serving as
judges, pit manager, and just help out with registration and setup. The
kids not only have fun, get community services hours, but gain valuable
leadership skills serving as Assistant Judges, Reset Ref, Pit Reset, and
Queue (I would call them Robocop - policing the hall way). There are even
positions for DJ, score keeper, time keeper, and field assistant.
But the best part of all was seeing those rookie teams made it to
competition and trying their best to impress everyone. Even if they walked
away without any award, just being there, they are all winner, and
persistent will pay off one day as in the story of the Kilmer-I team (aka
the famous "Rabid Llama Lords" - but this is another story to be shared
later.)
So next year, sign up to compete in an early tournament, get it over with,
and signup as volunteers in a different tournament. Better yet, convince
your entire school to become a "Volunteer Partner" and see how much fun
everyone can have.
Best wishes to those teams going to State, and for the other teams that
didn't, just don't stop here after the competition. The journey continues .
have the kids go out there and share what they have learn, form a robotics
club at the school, catch up on NXT programming, prepare for next year, or
have the kids go teach what they know about Robotics like the "Rabid Llama
Lords" and be inspire to do something greater. Or maybe the kids can just
go online to see how NASA engineers plan to free the Mars rover Spirit from
its sand trap (http://marsrover.nasa.gov/home/index.html) and see if it can
be apply to their situation when their robot is trap out on the competition
table, or figure out a way to solve the problem posted by the Yangtze River
Expedition Team.
Thank you go out to Mr. Desh Deshmukh, tournament director, and Mr. Stephen
Scherr, assistant director, and Mr. Marion Billington, Teacher Sponsor, and
all the volunteers for making the TJHSST FLL Regional Tournament possible.
Cheers,
T. (Curt) Tran
Judges Advisor, TJHSST Regional
Volunteers Coordinator, Kilmer MS
From: First Lego League in Virginia and DC
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Levy
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 8:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] Thanks for your participation at the TJ FLL
Regional Tournament
I wasn't aware of any problems. It was a very relaxing day thanks to
you and the other volunteers!
David Levy
coach : Team 3546 Super Nanobot Extremes
design judge : Rocky Run regional
On Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:49:05 -0500, VA/DC Referee Advisor wrote
> FLL Coaches,
>
> I'd like to pass my thanks on to you and your teams for the great job
they did today, and for the patience everyone showed today when the
published schedule went awry. Desh and I had a lot of discussions about
what makes a good tournament for the teams and how the schedule can tie all
the pieces together so that teams aren't rushed, but also don't have to
spend a lot of time waiting for other things. We'll be more careful about
both checking for problems and doing version control in the future.
>
> As a side note, it turns out that building a tournament schedule is a
lot like getting over the dynamometer--you have to approach it very
carefully in order to keep making progress and avoid spinning your wheels...
:-)
>
> It was really wonderful to meet all the teams today, and to see their
wonderful creativity and accomplishments--whether trying one mission or all
of them. This year's robot game is the most complex navigational challenge
that I've seen as a volunteer, and the teams did a great job of figuring out
what they could do with it and taking pride in that, as well as thinking
about how to keep improving.
>
> I think that FLL is a great program, and take my hat (parrot or not!)
off to all the coaches and mentors who do all the work to make it possible.
I look forward to seeing everyone again in the future.
>
> Steve Scherr
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