Hi Stephanie, I'm not sure about Loudoun County, but I have not heard about Fairfax County having Lego Mindstorms kits available to rent or to borrow. I do know some middle schools in Fairfax County (with a GT center) that have the funding to purchase the Mindstorms kits for their Tech classes, but they don't loan them out. My suggestion is to work with your school PTA/PTO on this. This was how our elementary school started their Robotics program 3 years ago. The PTO (not sure about PTA rules) funded the purchase of 11 Mindstorms Kits ($280 ea) and the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Engineering I course ($270). The PTO offered 3 before/after school robotics classes with 16 students for each class (2 students per kit, with 3 kits to be used by 3 parent-volunteer teachers). The PTO charged $90 per student for taking the Robotics Engineering I class. The 3 classes were fully booked, and the PTO recovered all the cost in the first year. (What the kids did during their 2nd year is another success story to be shared later...) This is the quickest way for you to get the Mindstorms Kits into your school and to avoid all the bureaucracy with the county. Regards, Curt Tran 2007, Coach Team #3563, Rabid Llama Lords 2008, Coach Team #324, Scitobor -----Original Message----- From: First Lego League in Virginia and DC [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephanie Gleason Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 12:10 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [VADCFLL-L] Recommendations for Using County Mindstorm Kits Needed Does anyone have experience working with Loudoun or Fairfax county to rent or borrow the county Lego Mindstorms kits? We would like to offer a Lego Mindstorms afterschool program this fall at Horizon Elementary. For the first time, have a FLL team at the school and more people want to learn and join next year. I'd like to offer an afterschool program over 6 weeks (one afternoon a week) for grades 3-5. We have an instructor, but we need kits. My kids took the Lego Robotics camp through Loudoun Parks and Recreation this summer. The teachers were very supportive of the idea and seemed to think we could borrow or rent the kits from the county. Since then I have left multiple email and voicemail messages with Aaron Hopper and Jessica Hale at Loudoun P&R and have received no responses. Can anyone refer me to someone else or suggest another avenue I can try? Thanks, Stephanie Gleason 571-434-9530 ______________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be distributed - visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". ______________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be distributed - visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".