Wyoming FIRST® LEGO® League: 2006

Dec 6, 2006

Casper Journal writes editorial about Lego Robotics

The Casper Journal has an excellent editorial regarding the value of what happened Saturday.

Read Editorial

Dec 4, 2006

Wyoming FLL Winners

All the students that participated in this year's Wyoming FLL tournament were winners and received a Wyoming FLL Medallion for their tremendous efforts. The teams winning a trophy this year are:

Champion's Award:
1st: Crest Hill Fire-breathing Programmers
2nd: Mills Robot Brigade
3rd: Sagewood Starbotics

Robot Performance Award:
1st: Crest Hill Fire-breathing Programmers
2nd: Oregon Trail Lazer Blazers

Robot Design Award:
1st: St. Anthony's SAM's Robitz
2nd: Casper Classical Academy Geek Squad

Teamwork Award:
1st: Sagewood Starbotics
2nd: Centennial Eagle Robotics

Challenge Project Presentation Award:
1st: Verda James Robo Kings
2nd: Pineview Hippy Chic Panther Geeks

Team Spirit Award:
1st: Mills Robot Brigade
2nd: CY Junior High Biohazards
3rd: Westwood/McKinley Mini Lego Maniacs

Congratulations to all the students and coaches for such a great day!

Dec 3, 2006

Inaugural Wyoming FIRST LEGO League Tournament

The inaugural Wyoming First LEGO League Tournament was held yesterday at Casper's Frontier Middle School. The event was a huge success. Twenty-one Casper teams including over 170 students were involved in the competition. We will post the award winners and additional details tomorrow.

In the meantime, here is an article regarding the competition from the Casper Star Tribune. Article Link

Nov 30, 2006

FIRST LEGO Robotics coming to Wyoming!

This Saturday, December 2, 2006 we will be holding our first FIRST Lego League competition. The competition will be held at Frontier Middle School which is located at 900 South Beverly Street in Casper Wyoming.

The competition will showcase our Natrona County's 9-14 year old students' learning about robotics and nanotechnology. Come check it out!

Nov 22, 2006

Coaching Timeline

Showtime!

Nov 18, 2006

Wyoming FLL Schedule Announced

Wyoming FLL Competition
Frontier Middle School
900 S. Beverly St.
Casper, Wyoming
December 2, 2006

9:00 AM Opening Ceremony
.....Team Spirit Award Judging begins

9:45 AM ALL EVENTS BEGIN

.....Project Judging in Green rooms
.....Teamwork judging in Yellow rooms
.....Technical judging in Red rooms

.....Unscored Practice Round
..........Practice 9:45 AM – 10:38 AM
.....Performance Round
..........Round 1 10:40 AM – 11:33 AM

11:35 AM Lunch Break

12:05 PM Competition Resumes
.....Performance Rounds
..........Round 2 12:05 PM – 12:58 PM
..........Round 3 1:00 PM – 1:53 PM
..........Round 4 1:55 PM – 2:48 PM

.....Project, Teamwork, Technical judging continues until 1:40

3:00 PM Closing Ceremony

3:30 PM Award/Trophy presentations

Nov 12, 2006

Coaches Meeting Thursday 11/16 4:00 PM

We imagine you have many questions like:
What will December 2nd look like?
What is the schedule?
What should my team bring?
Are we heading in the right direction?

To answer these questions and more, we will be having a Coaches Forum at the Frontier Middle School Media Center (2nd Floor) from 4:00-6:00 pm on Thursday, November 16. We will discuss teams' progress, give out tournament schedules, review mission scoring and judging rubrics, and discuss other tournament logistics.

We understand how busy you all are, but this opportunity should alleviate some of the pressure and stress of the unknown. If nothing else, it will be nice to know others are sharing in your stress. :) We don't want people to cancel practices to attend, but it would be ideal for those who have more than one coach to send at least one representative to this forum.

Oct 27, 2006

Nanotechnology Expert to visit with Coaches

This Wednesday, November 1 from 4-5 p.m. Casper College will be hosting a Wyoming First Lego League Coaches Forum. Dr. Christopher Rothfuss, a local nanotechnology expert will discuss nanotechnology as it relates to this year's FLL NanoQuest Challenge. Coaches please plan to attend this incredible opportunity.

Dr. Christopher Rothfuss - Bio Statement
Dr. Christopher Rothfuss represented the US Department of State, Office of Space and Advanced Technology from 2003 through 2006. Dr. Rothfuss was the State Department lead on nanotechnology and supported a variety of space policy and advanced technology issues. He represented the Department on the Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET) Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) that coordinates the US National Nanotechnology Initiative. In addition, Dr. Rothfuss chaired the NSET Global Issues in Nanotechnology (GIN) working group which focuses specifically on US international policy and activities related to nanotechnology. Dr. Rothfuss was a 2003 AAAS Science and Technology Diplomacy Fellow. He received a PhD in Chemical Engineering and MS in Applied Physics from the University of Washington, and a MS in Chemical Engineering and BA in International Political Science from the University of Wyoming.

Oct 17, 2006

Nanooze - Special Nano Quest Edition

The folks at Nanooze, a science magazine about nanotechnology for kids, have put together a special Nano Quest edition to tell you a bit more about the science behind some of the missions. These articles were written specifically for FLL teams so may be a great help in understanding the missions and the tiny world of nanotechnology. Go to the Nanooze website to read all about the missions. Click on 'Articles' to see their explanation of the science behind each mission.

Nanotechnology Videos

Visit this Museum of Science link to watch some great video podcasts of recent developments in Nanotechnology.

Ask a Nanoscientist!

New - and available online now. The Museum of Science, Boston and the Materials Research Society are providing a great opportunity to assist with the tough questions that FLL Teams may have as they are researching nanoscience and technology for the Nano Quest Challenge. Go to the Ask A Nanoscientist Website to post your question. Once teams have had a chance to formulate questions, the questions and answers will be posted to the "Ask a Nanoscientist Website" - including yours! You may ask as many questions as you want, just check first to see if someone else has already asked it to save yourselves some time.

Oct 13, 2006

Site Participation

Here is the information on numbers of students and team practice times.

1) Crest Hill Dragon Fire Breathing Programmers - 25 - W/R 7:45-8:45
2) Southridge Superstars - 25 - T/Th 3:45-4:45
3) Woods Learning Center Robo Hobos - 30 - M
4) Verda James Robo Kings - 20 -
5) McKinley/Westwood Mini-Lego Maniacs - 40 - T/Th 11:40-12:25
6) Oregon Trail Lazer Blazer - 35 - W/Th 8:00-8:50
7) Dean Morgan Comet Ryders - 20 - T/Th 7:00-7:50
8) Mills School Mills Robot Brigade - 10 - M-Th 3:00-4:00
9) North Casper Xera's Robo Kingdom - 8 - Th 3:20-4:15
10) Frontier Firewolves - 40 - M-F 2:05-2:35
11) Casper Classical Academy Geek Squad - 11 - Thur 4
12) Paradise Valley Terabyte Tigers - 17 - M/W 3:30 - 4:15
13) Sagewood Starbotics - 21 - 4X Wk 7:45-8:45, 3:30-5:30 (Sat. in Nov)
14) Boys & Girls Club -
15) Centennial Wings E-Core
16) CYJH Biohazards - 20 - TF 2:50-4
17) Midwest Elementary Techno Robots - 16 - TWR 11:40-12:10
18) St. Anthony's SAM's Robitz
19) Pineview Hippy Chic Panther Geeks - 13 - TWF 8-8:50
20) Willard ? - 13 - Thur 3:45-5
21) Midwest Jr. High Nano Robots

Oct 2, 2006

Teams KickOff

Each participating school has now had their official NanoQuest KickOff meeting. Please take a minute or two to comment and let us know how your site is doing. Specifically, let us know the following information:

1)Site Information (School & Team Name)
2)How many students are participating (We would like to have this number for the grant)?
3)When are your regularly scheduled team meetings (days/time/location)?
4)How are your site's students reacting to this new opportunity?

Sep 27, 2006

What is Nano?

Coaches needing to help students discover the size of 'Nano' may want to show students the Powers of 10 video. A link to the video is on the right side in the coaching resources.

Robots, and students, attend School Improvement Conference!

NCSD students and robots attended the Wyoming School Improvement Conference to demonstrate this year's Nanotechnology Challenge. While this year's challenge will be for only NCSD sites, we are hoping to have a statewide event in 2007. See the Natrona County Schools site for an additional photo. http://natronaschools.org/

Sep 18, 2006

NanoQuest KickOff Tuesday

NanoQuest Challenge 2006 details have been released. We will be having our KickOff for our Central Wyoming FIRST Lego League Meeting tomorrow night at 4:00 in room 211 at Frontier Middle School. Please see the links to the right for more information about both the 'Robot Game' and 'The Project'.

Sep 13, 2006

Important Dates

Fall Coaches Meeting:
Thursday, Sept. 7 (4-5 pm Frontier Middle School Room 211)
NXT Coaches Training (attend one)
Monday, September 11 (4-6 pm Frontier Middle School Room 211)
Tuesday, September 12 (4-6 pm Frontier Middle School Room 211)
Wednesday, September 13 (4-6 pm Frontier Middle School Room 211)
Thursday, September 14 (4-6 pm Frontier Middle School Room 211)
NanoQuest KickOff:
Tuesday, September 19 (4-6 pm Frontier Middle School Room 211)

Wyoming FIRST® LEGO® League