NorCal FLL Community

> I'd like to get more information about how I might be able to fund a team or teams... particularly, when the parents are not likely to be able to afford to pay the full cost...

Coaches / Team Leaders:  what are you doing?   Particularly for the robot kit and the need for a laptop....

Here is what we have heard over the years...   The overwhelming majority of teams  divide the start up costs (average $800)  among the team members  [6 members =~ $134]  and parents pay that amount for what is considered an optional, extracurricular activity - the cost is in line with what we find from similar youth "activities" like club soccer, youth theatre and similar.


Many teachers and school-based teams find support from their local parent group (PTA) and/or educational foundation to help provide some partial scholarships and/or help to buy the reusable LEGO robot kit (the single biggest issue for a new team).      A slighter cheaper option compared to the "FLL Bundle" is to acquire the pieces a bit differently...   (thanks to Dave P) the best "bang for the buck" for an FLL kit is NXT 2.0 Retail (#8547 from lego.com or amazon.com) plus just #9648 (The "Education Resource Set"  from legoeducation.com).   It does save some money to go that route - the only potential downside is that the Retail kit (#8547) tutorial is not as well suited for a classroom use as compared to the Education version  (#9797) tutorial  but both software versions have built-in tutorials  [ more info in FLL Forum article in area labelled, "Retail vs. Education Versions in General].

Also,  some teams do things like request help from local businesses (like pizza parlors, real estate agents, and basically similar to businesses that support local sports youth teams) - a few "$50 or more" contributions will help fund getting a robot kit - teams go that route tend to create a team shirt that lists their sponsors as a thank you.


Here are a few more resources that I have been able to find:   http://www.legoeducation.us/about/item.aspx?art=314&bhcp=1  


Playing At Learning does has some very limited hardship grant funding -  the hurdles are pretty high with respect to Title 1 / free&reduced lunch percentages, etc.  You can request the grant application from me

Finally,  one other idea that can work in some communities, if you can ask the community if anyone has an existing LEGO NXT Mindstorms kit sitting around their house  - someone might be willing to donate the kit in exchange for a tax deductible receipt :-)     Many areas have a library physical bulletin board or  there are online community-wide or district-wide mailing list or similar that can help distribute the request.

Any other ideas?

We just announced how to register for the Kickoff event at Google.   Some of the questions we get from coaches and others is:   what is kickoff, do teams have to attend,  why attend.

What is the kickoff exactly?       Basically,  the kickoff is a good reason to bring as many of our  teams and community together for a shared "unveiling" of the new FLL Game.   It is the official start of the FLL Season!

One of the fun aspects of going is listening to all of the questions that get asked  :-)

Teams do not have to attend but many like to come.    The Body Forward challenge details themselves are released online by FIRST on / about noon EST on 9/3.   Many teams don't peek and use the kickoff event for a surprise  event in / of itself.    We hope that we can accommodate everyone that wants to attend...

A common question we get from rookie coaches and parents is "What is a good set of goals for a rookie team?"     It is hard to say one singular answer as it depends on several factors

1)  Do the kids already know each other and have a "relationship" of some sort - ie how much work will it be to come together as a team

2) How often is the team meeting and where?   [Classroom vs house/garage vs community center or other "nonfamiliar" place]

3) How familiar is the team with the LEGO technic-style building  [vs brick style] 

4) How much programming  (in general) do any of the team members have and how much specific programming with the LEGO NXT robotics kit do any of the team members have.

There are other factors as well including ages of the team,  age range between team members, how large the team is, etc

All that said -  what would be some realistic goals for rookie teams?   

Here are some of the goals we have heard from rookie coaches/teams over the years  -   feel free to add your rookie team goals  (this year as a rookie team or your first year for those experienced coaches) in the comments....

A)  Our team wanted to have fun ;  have a robot that could do 3 different types of things in the game and for our project, be able to model it with LEGO blocks

B) Our team wanted to go to a tournament with a robot that could drive out of base and successfully do at least one mission, maybe two.  We wanted to spend time learning from other teams and have a pizza party to celebrate

C) Our team has all older siblings that competed in FLL and we wanted to have a better project presentation and better robot than they had

D)  Our team wasn't into the robot very much so we had a robot that could do a couple of tasks but not much more.  We really liked our project idea and we did a lot of fun teamwork activities that we did including field trips.

The floating FLL Registration closing date to register a new FLL team is sometimes a mystery to people -  why is there not a set date for team registration to close?    

The limitation for FLL teams is access to the Field Setup Kit (FSK).   All field setup kits that will exist for the 2010 Body Forward season are already made and ready to be shipped to teams -  this is a one time production item.   When all US/Canada allocated field setup kits are ordered, registration closes.  We have heard, but it is unconfirmed, that the number allocated for US/Canada is 9500.

As of Aug7 at 4pm PDT, there were ~4100 teams registered teams in US/Canada.   A few teams share the FSK (particularly for school-based teams), so the number of remaining kits is higher than 5400   [9500-4100]. 

Here are the top 5 states/provinces with the most FLL team registrations:

   1) California  359 teams
   2) Virginia  260
   3) New York  249 
   4) Texas 166
   5) Georgia 163

Registering the team as early as possible helps to make sure that you don't get left behind if FLL team registration closes earlier than end-September.   

Just wrote an article about what teams can and should be doing ahead of the season kickoff if they can!   What is your team doing now? 

The FLL Forums are open and active for 2010.   The Forums are full of helpful folks willing to share their opinions / strategies / experience.

It is important to know that the FLL forums are not the place for the official answers about the game / rules / project (official answers come from the FLL-> Challenge section of the usfirst.org site and 2010 Challenge information won't be available until after kickoff on September 3rd).  

Coaches -  what are you favorite threads/posts?   What would you recommend?

Here are mine from 2009  - with a focus on helping the rookies out there:

•  Differences between NXT-G software versions   [update in comments - need to be logged in]
  
•  Basic Robot Designs    
•  Starting on project
•  Using Multiple computers
•  Robot Design/Programming   Judging
•  Motor Variation  
•  Not ready (to compete)  [And a blog post from our very own, Dave Parker]

I just noticed that all content previous to 2009 appears to be MIA....   If the articles above are going to be removed after this season and are useful,  we can set up a "mirror" site here for a "Best of..."  that lives on... 

Does something like that exist already?   If not, we can set up a polling area where the community can vote on the threads / advice and we can copy the content here to live on...   Would this be useful?

-jill

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