What is FLL?

Have you heard of FIRST LEGO League and wondered what exactly it is? Perhaps you've read some of our blog and wondered why we do all this cool stuff. Or maybe you would just like to get a brief summery of FLL for a better understanding of this inspiring program. 

Well here's a video made by FIRST that should help.  :)

For more information visit: www.firstlegoleague.org

Our Skit!

We presented our innovative solution to project judges at the Sunday 11/23/14 Marquette Regional Competition in Milwaukee. 

Despite being short on a few of our props and a team member, we were able to pull off a successful project presentation that won us the innovative solution award later in the day.

We were so ready to go that we actually started our skit before we even had the video camera running. So since the beginning is missing from the video, we typed in the opening lines so you won't miss any of it. ;)

You may notice our team's unique presentation style. The judges have a rubric to fill out and we like to help them by formatting our skit around the rubric! We go right down the line, starting with the problem identification, through innovative solution and effectiveness. 

With this efficient layout, the judges are able to circle every section of their sheet by the time our five minute skit is finished. In fact, these judges only had two questions for us during our five minute interview afterward! This presentation style has worked amazingly well for several years and the judges like it too!

Now we are working with an intellectual property firm to submit a patent application. We also submitted for the FLL Global Innovation award and are beyond excited to see what is in store for us next! 

Enjoy our video!

Check out our skit from last year too!
Visit our YouTube page for more videos!

Global Innovation Award Submission

Well, it was an intense and busy January as our team prepared for our 4H judging, worked on our drawings and descriptions of our project for the provisional patent an attorney is helping us to file, and getting things ready to submit for the FLL Global Innovation Award. Check out our application!

4-H Judging

Each year our team not only competes in FIRST LEGO League tournaments, but we are also separately judged at another time for the Waukesha County Fair. This judging doesn't take place at, or during, the fair, but instead is judged at a special judging day where lots of event-based 4-H projects are judged, such as drama, speeches, playing musical instruments....and FLL!

 Real FLL-trained judges come and judge us. However, we don't have just five or ten minutes to present everything to them. Instead, we have as much time as needed! That's usually around 20-30 minutes per judging session. It's so much fun to be able to dive into the details of everything.

Provisional Patent

We're working on a provisional patent. We met with an attorney from Boyle Fredrickson and he explained about the different kinds of patents. We presented our project skit to him since it was a fast and easy way to explain our project, including our World Class Question which contains problem identification, the existing solutions, our innovative solution, and our plan of implementation. After our meeting, we got to show his young son our robot. A future team member, perhaps?

Thank you for sponsoring our team!

Waukesha JanBoree

Each year at the Waukesha JanBoree pancake breakfast, we bring our robot and our project display boards to share with our community. And each year, we have many families who come back year after year to see our team, our robot, and see what new thing we invented!

This family has come to see us for several years.

This little guy needed a boost up to see the robot.

There's always a steady flow of visitors to see our team.

The JanBoree Tweets about us at the event! And one of these costume characters is a former team member. Hmmm....which one?

If you guessed the polar bear, you were right! He's also the brother of a current team member.

Tackling Everything And More!

So what's next?
Even though our team didn't move on from our regional tournament this year, it doesn't mark the end of the robotics season for us. We are still super excited for our project and hope to see just how far we can take our innovative solution. Winning the innovative solution award really inspired and encouraged us. Currently we are looking into getting a provisional patent and applying for the Global Innovation Award. Wouldn't that be crazy cool?!

We are looking forward to participating in one more "mini 4-H tournament" as well. Seeing as we are a 4-H team, after the holidays we plan to group back together and prepare for our upcoming 4-H judging. Then summer plans have yet to be made, but we usually keep active in the community with displays and demonstrations at fairs and local events and gathering general background research for next year's theme.

So keep an eye out for #4889 T.E.A.M. Dia-Get-It!