Updates on Senior Solutions. . . 2012!

Our team is starting off the new season with new team members. This year we have four new members and four returning members. The new team members are Peyton, Garen, Katie, and Maya. The four members that are returning from last year are Spencer, Alex, Jessica, and Avery. We also have three team members that have graduated off the team and we would like acknowledge them for their time spent on the team. The graduating members are: Madeline, Curtis, and Hannah. Thank you for your time and commitment to the team.

We have started off the year by building the board and downing a five or six frozen pizzas.

So far this season for research, we have gone on two field trips. The first fieldtrip was to Oak Hill Terrace, an assisted living facility in Waukesha. The second fieldtrip we took was to the Brewer Company in Menomonee Falls (a medical equipmanet company). Later this month, we will be meeting with someone from the Waukesha County Department of the Aging and Disabled.

Also, to help us identify what potential problems exist in the senior community, we are reaching out to as many people as possible that are 60 and over to take a simple online survey designed by one of our returning members. The link for this survey is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S88GC77

We would also like to publicly thank the group of senior residents at Oak Hill Terrace as well as Robert Best for the "focus group" session and tour of their facility. We learned a lot of information from them and want to thank them for their time.

We would also like to thank the Brewer Company for showing us how their business works as well as some innovative solutions to real problems that have been developed into some real working products. This gave us more inspiration to keep coming up with more ideas to help our senior community!

Finally, our team would not exist without donations from various sources to help us pay for entry fees to tournaments, equipment and parts for our robots, etc. Therefore, we would like to thank Keystone Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning for generously helping to support our team this year.

Thank you for helping us get off to a great start!

Avery

Fundraising

We have great news! GE is going to sponsor our team again this year! This a huge development for our team as it costs quite a bit of money to buy LEGO NXT equipment and enter our team into tournaments, etc. We are thankful to GE for once again sponsoring us.

We are still looking for more sponsors to help fund our team. We have completed a fundraising letter and are sending out to grandmas and grandpas and other businesses too.

Avery

New Survey for Senior Solutions

Please answer our survey if you are age 60~ or older to help us identify problems that exist within the senior community so we can develop an innovative solution.  Thank you for your help!
Click here to take survey

Inspiration at the County Fair

A smiling little girl, with her eyes brightening, exclaimed, "I like Mindstorms now!" Though the girl had watched her brother on his robotics team before, she had seen little that held her interest. Moments before announcing her new-found fascination to her mother, she approached our team's robot, pressed the orange start button, and ran the LEGO NXT robot herself. She discovered the fun that FIRST LEGO League has promoted since 1999.

This was at the Waukesha County Fair where our team was privileged to bring that inspiration to her during our interactive demonstrations over the weekend. Young and old alike learned the benefits of being on an FLL team. From fun, to innovation, to teamwork and gracious professionalism, we shared how being on the T.E.A.M. helps young minds grow. Introducing robotics to fascinated youth and adults of all ages, and enlightening many to the world of robotics, our team looks forward to our next opportunity to share our passion for science, technology, engineering and math at the Wisconsin State Fair.

-Madeline

End of Season. . . But wait, there's more!

Our 2011 season has now officially ended. Since the state tournament we have continued being active in 4-H by:

• presenting our project and the spirit of FLL at the Waukesha Janboree.
• scoring blue ribbons at our 4-H County Fair judging.
• helping a Girl Scouts FLL team hone their skills in design, presentation, and organization.

Though three of our team members graduated from the team this year, we hope to see them return in a new role -- this time to mentor the TEAM. Now we move into our off-season meetings to learn, prepare, and share as much as we can. It's not too early to get ready for the fall 2012 season!

~Madeline

State Tournament Results

The teams at the tournament were all excellent, top-notch teams with engaging projects and remarkable robots, so we had stiff competition.

  

TEAM Temp-Assure's FLL state tournament experience -  64 teams, stiff competition, robot troubles, teamwork, and..... 2nd place INSPIRATION AWARD!!! (one of the three kinds of teamwork awards). The judges thought our team was inspiring to other teams and to each other. We were nominated for the following three awards as well:

1. Gracious Professionalism
2. Research
3. Inspiration
4. (Another team also nominated us for the Against All Odds award, but in the awards ceremony, we were not officially nominated for it)

We were thrilled to have the judges recognize the work our team has done in the community to start, support, and inspire other FLL teams. We are all overjoyed to have received one of the top nine kinds of interview awards, and to have ranked 15th place in robot scoring.

  

Now we have another Lego trophy to add to our collection. TEAM Temp-Assure is still in surprised and excited shock, smiles everywhere. What an inspiring, and satisfactory day!

~Madeline

STATE!

State!!! We're a day away from the state tournament now! Oh so excited! Pack up the robot, gather the boards, ready your smiles, and all the rest, let's do our best! Ready? Can't wait to go, awards or no! Fun, fun, look out state, here we come!

-Madeline