Village Home Teams Win Awards at State Competition!

Both Village Home Lego robotics teams won awards at the 2-day state competition. Team Um... competed on Saturday, January 17 and did a spectacular job on their presentation. They gave thoughtful and substantive answers to the very tough questions that were asked in their presentation by the judges. One of the judges appeared to be an expert in the very area on which the team was presenting. The team didn't waiver, though. In fact, they ended the night with the 3rd place award for the Project Presentation! A testimony to the fact that thorough research and persistent communication with the community can result in learning, awareness, and recognition.

The Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies competed on Sunday, January 18 and had a wonderful time, as well. The Duckies have built a reputation as being a fun and very involved team. They drew attention everywhere they went. Even the head judges wanted to get in on the action as each judging event had additional judges involved in order to determine if this team was for real. The team was running on all cylinders during the tournament, except for some quirks in the running of the robot. At the end of the day, it was a real nail-biter, but the Duckies were able to pull it all off. The Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies went on to win the event and were awarded the top prize of 1st Place Champions Award. They will now move on to the U.S. Open to compete against 60 other 1st place teams from around the country. This national championship will be held in Ohio at the start of May.

2009 Preparations Begin - Smart Move

No sooner did we finish the 2008 season with grand accomplishments from both teams, that we have started our research and development for the 2009 Smart Move season. Team members are busy improving robot designs and conducting initial research into transportation issues. If you or someone in your family is involved in transportation, we would like to hear from you. If you are wondering what this Lego competition is all about, please come by to watch the exciting activities, or watch one of the videos listed on the side panel.

More Than Just Playing with Legos

Lego Robotics is more than playing with Legos, it is an opportunity to learn! We learn and grow as we explore science and technology. From programing and building a Lego robot, to exploring Mars and the oceans, we learn that kids can make an impact on the world in which we live today, and tomorrow.

About the Competition

We run our robots in competitions. In all, there are almost 400 teams that have registered with ORTOP. With so many team that register, there has to be multiple competitions with an average of twenty teams competing per competition. The competition is made of four parts. There is Technical and Presentation Judging, Teamwork, and the famous Table Run!

The Table Run consists of a Lego robot on a mat of difficult missions. We have 2 1/2 minutes to complete these missions, which is not a lot of time. Each mission has a different point value to go along with it. The maximum total score is 400 points. It is a challenge to get all of the points in the two and a half minute time limit.

The Technical and Presentation Judging are both quite similar. They both take ten minutes. Also, they both require the teams to speak and answer the questions of four judges.

The Technical Judging is connected with the Table Run. Judges ask you about the programing and the design of your Lego Robot. Although ten minutes sounds like a long time, it goes by very quickly.

The Presentation Judging requires the teams to research a topic and present it to a panel of judges. The first five minutes of the judging is spent by the team members sharing their ideas with the judges. The last five minutes of the ten is spent by the judges asking questions to the team members regarding the presentation.

Last and not least, is the team work category. Teams are graded on how well they work together and with other teams. The presentation and technical judges weave teamwork question to the team members.
All four categories are weighted evenly.

At the end of the day is the award ceremony. The teams are given an award based on how well they did in each category. The top four winners of each competition get to go to the state competition, which was held on January 13th. Seventy-nine teams get to go to the state competition. It is much harder because it is the best of the best. The lay out is like the district competition.

The one winner of that competition gets to go to either a national competition held at various places in the United States, or to the World Festival that is held in Atlanta, Georgia. In order to be prepared for the different competitions, we follow a yearly schedule. From the end of March to early summer, we build and decide on the robot that we will use for the competition. Then, in the summer, when the rules and mat come out, we start to build attachments for the robot. During the entire year, we are researching and creating a presentation. In the fall and winter, we practice our presentation and robot runs.

FIRST Lego League

FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. FIRST is a non-profit, world wide program to encourage kids to get excited about learning math and science. "To create a world where science and technology are celebrated... where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes" Dean Kamen, Founder of FIRST.

There are many parts to FIRST. There is a High school level of FIRST where the participants build robots using metal and make the robots by melting and molding it to shape their robot.

To learn more about FLL, go to http://www.firstlegoleague.org/

To learn more about FIRST, go to http://www.usfirst.org/

ORTOP

ORTOP stands for Oregon Robotics Tournament and Outreach Program. They are the hosts of the Robotics Tournaments that are held in Oregon. ORTOP uses the FLL program to get kids learning about math and science in a fun way. ORTOP is a program of the Oregon University System, yet it is almost entirely run by volunteers.

To learn how to become a volunteer, go to http://www.ortop.org/vol.htm#ts.

To learn more about ORTOP, go to http://www.ortop.org/