MN FIRST LEGO League 2010/2011 State Award Winners

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1 MN FIRST LEGO League 2010/2011 State Award Winners High Tech Kids Special Volunteer Award Comments This year s special volunteer award is bestowed to some fast acting tournament directors that stopped their day-jobs on Friday December 10 at exactly 2 pm and saved us as schools were closing across our entire state. For the first time ever, 4 events were cancelled and rescheduled with what was a seamless effort for 128 teams. As 20 inches of snow fell, all of you saved the day by quickly informing us of the school closures, found viable options to reschedule, ed, called and calmed many kids, coaches and parents. We know you changed your personal plans one of you even delayed your Christmas celebration and your grandmother s 85th birthday party. You held amazing regional tournaments, again. That is phenomenal. You are phenomenal. Thanks for all you do! Award Winner Pat Manning, Steve Vrchota, Leslie Berger, Daphne Immele, Vergene Downs and Colleen Fridlund. Coaches Award Comments This award is given to someone who has shown extraordinary leadership in the coaching ranks. Someone who has had great influence on their team members, on other coaches, and in their community. This coach has had an amazing year. Despite mulitiple surgeries she maintained her team s momentum, made every meeting, and worked through another year of fun. She will say she is not worthy and just a mom and anyone can do this. From involving her team in their community all year long and donating her time, encouragement and respect. Award Winner Teresa Cook

2 Community Volunteer Award Across Minnesota, there are some communities that embrace FLL with a fervor. This award is presented to two local leaders of La Crescent, MN who have helped their community come alive. Combined, these two have coached multiple FLL teams for many years. They have provided local coach and team mentoring, training, participated as head referee, and this past year, assisted in the new FLL regional in Rochester, MN. They are an inspiration to their community and have helped bring this program to many families in southeastern Minnesota. Thanks for all you do! Award Winner Becky Haack and Scott Finn Officials Award Comments This award is given to someone who has shown significant and long term leadership in officiating MN FLL events. We have many judges and referees who now have worked for many years in the program. I could easily give out 20 of these awards every year. It gets harder and harder to choose each year. This year s recipient has judged for many years, helped with training of judges and mentoring new judges. I called on her many times this year (and past year) to step in at the last minute and help out. She always makes the time. Award Winner Jenny Filipi

3 Leadership Award The HTK Leadership Award is kind of the Championship award for volunteers - High Tech Kids only works because of the huge amount of work put in by volunteers and even more so by key volunteers. Comments This award is given to someone who has shown long-term leadership and is a vital part of the overall MN FLL operations. Usually this is a key, behind the scenes person. This year, a family has been selected to share the High Tech Kids' Leadership award. We know they already have a basement loaded with plaques, trophies and medals for their daughters teams over the years. But this one is specifically for them, who never expect or want recognition, but so fully deserve it. From rookie training, teacher training, coach training, MPS team mentoring, tournament directing, head officiating, judging, and just about every volunteer role we have, we thank you for all you do and congratulate your family. Award Winner Rand and Beth Whillock, with their daughters Amy and Sarah Young Mentor Award The Young Mentor award is presented to the outstanding young mentor of a Lego League team. The award is open to students 18 and under, who reach out to the community and help other teams. Judges are looking for evidence of an effective mentoring "style", skills in transmitting and fostering cognitive and social skills, emotional growth and support. The winner also receives a $250 college scholarship from High Tech Kids. Young Mentor This year s finalists are: Quote about winner Joshua Balbach Geoffrey Bissen Mary Rose Brown Paxton Harvieux Newton Kirby III Sam Miller Winner Paxton Harvieux

4 Research Awards Presenting the first 2 research awards is: Katherine Cramer, from the U of MN College of Science and Engineering, who helps us plan every research workshop and convinces many professors and students to help us each year with the research topic. Research Quality Award The Research Quality Award is presented to the team that best develops an in-depth and thorough understanding of the Research Challenge. They have the best explanation of their teams' research topic and Solution. 898 Ambulance Aces Robo Pros 6187 Leggo My Lego 5594 Break A Leg Winner 8965 Robo Pros 7 Hydrogen Peroxide 2945 The Minnesota Girls and Joe 6700 NXT Knights Winner 2945 Minnesota Girls and Joe

5 Innovative Solution Award The Innovative Solution Award is presented to the team that has the most thought provoking and innovative resolution to the research challenge assignment. The judges are not only looking for creative ideas, but an examination of all the issues required to implement the solution Imax 5594 Break A Leg 7515 The Shots 6185 Robot Squad Winner 5594 Break a leg 1547 XMTRS 7288 StormBots St. Peter EA-Z Winner XMTRS

6 Presenting the last Research award and the teamwork award is: Sara Vandeventer of Best Buy, a HTK board member and FLL enthusiast for many years, who helps is judge teamwork at many tournaments every year. Creative Presentation Award The Creative Presentation Award is presented to the team with the most imaginative and creative presentation demonstrating the teams' research and solution to the Research Challenge Assignment Robo Pros 4915 ICU 1976 Nevermind I forgot 5006 Grand Rapids Thunderbots Winner ICU Electrix 5626 The Things 2063 Black Knights Winner 5626 The Things

7 Team Work Award The teamwork award is presented to the team that best exemplifies the meaning of teamwork. Teamwork is the key to a successful team but very hard to do. It s important to recognize teams that do it well. Judges look for teams who work well together and focus on task specific activities during the day of the tournament. Teamwork is judged by judges in the presentation area and by roving judges that observe the team in action throughout the day The Metabotics 3348 The Fizz 898 Ambulance Aces Duh! Lego 5594 Break a Leg Winner 5594 Break A Leg 9438 Explosive Hedgehogs 7 Hydrogen Peroxide 5626 The Things Winner 9438 Explosive Hedgehogs

8 Robot Performance Award The Robot performance awards are presented to the top 3 teams in the head to head rounds. These teams survived the tough competition in these afternoon matches and came out on top. To present the Robot Performance awards for division 1 is: Dan Carlson, 3M, head referee, SPPS mentor, trainer, HTK board member, past tournament director and load in crew for every event we host. 3rd Place Metabotics 2nd Place TwizBots 1st Place 3348 The Fizz To present the Robot Performance awards for division 2: John Samuelson, General Manager of Lockheed Martin, HTK past board chair, FLL parent. In division 2 the top performers in the head to head competition are: 3rd Place CAVEMAN 2nd Place 47 JUST DUCKY 1st Place XMTRS

9 Team Spirit Award To give the team spirit and Sportsmanship awards, I d like to introduce: Kirsten Stone, HB Fuller, FLL parent, HTK board member and fantastic supporter The Team Spirit award is presented to the team best demonstrating extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit both within their own team and in their support and encouragement of fellow teams. The Team Spirit award is selected by the referees who observe the spirit shown by all teams in the performance arena, cheering on their teams and robots. Winner 8358 Green Girls Winner Hydrocarbon Skeletons Sportsmanship Award The Sportsmanship Award is presented the teams best showing good sportsmanship. Good sportsmanship occurs when teammates, opponents, coaches, and officials treat each other with respect. This may be for a specific incident or an overall attitude of great sportsmanship. Div 1 Reason Great sports in competion and judging Winner Duh! Lego Div 2 Reason A coach of a rookie team nominated this team. They said: Our team was having continued problems with the use of their light sensor. They asked a more experienced team for assistance and this team stepped up to help them in real time acting as mentors. It was very timely and helpful. Winner 6700 NXT Knights

10 Technical Awards Presenting the first Technical Design award is: Kathleen Kennedy for joining us from FIRST and making the trip from New Hampshire. Their snowstorms have been worse than ours. Quality Design Award The Quality Design Award is presented to the team whose understanding and application of sound mechanical principles produces the most solid, predictable, and dependable design Leggo My Lego 8620 Twix Bots 8965 Robo Pros 898 Ambulance Aces Winner 898 Ambulance Aces 1547 XMTRS 7 Hydrogen Peroxide 5626 The Things Winner 7 Hydrogen Peroxide

11 Presenting the next 2 Technical award will be: Jerry Sosinske, from Boston Scientific and the University of MN CSE alumni K-12 STEM committee, helping us spread our mission with his coworkers and hosting research workshops. Innovative Design Award The Innovative Design Award is presented the team that best demonstrates its ability to use a creative design, component or unique strategy of play when solving the Challenge missions Break a Leg 898 Ambulance Aces 3348 The Fizz 7795 The Metabotics Winner 7795 The Metabotics 8742 Artificial Sweetener 5677 The Surfing Elements B. P. Winner 5677 Surfing Elements

12 Programming Award The Programming Award is presented to the team best demonstrating an in-depth understanding of sound programming principles. The programs written by the teams will enable the robot to consistently complete complex tasks. Programming robots is a notoriously difficult problem and this award recognizes teams that excelled at this task The Fizz Robo Nuts 5594 Break a Leg 2545 Lego Lifesavers Winner 2545 Lego Lifesavers 5626 The Things Fish in the Boat 2941 Caveman ibots Winner 2941 Caveman

13 Judges Award As we get near the end of the awards, a very important category is the Judge s Awards To give out 4 Judges awards I d like to bring up: Lisa Crump, Co-founder of Stratasys and FLL judge, coach, parent and supporter since 1998 and Mike Bosveld who is a principal controls engineer also with Sratasys. The Judges award is a free-form award selected by the judges to recognize significant team accomplishments that may not fit other categories. Four judges awards are given. This year the judges award winners are all team that got multiple call backs to finalist judging, but did not get a first place award. These teams came in a close second in a number of categories. Reason Reason Reason Reason Reason Multiple nominations and great competitors Multiple nominations and great competitors Did not make any individual finals, but were 2 nd or 3 rd place in almost all categories - Multiple nominations and great competitors Winner Winner Robo Nuts Winner 6187 Leggo My Lego Winner 47 Just Ducky Winner 4794 Fish in the Boat A Few Words about Next year s challenge Next Year s Challenge is called: Food Factor and will engage teams in improving the quality of food by finding ways to prevent food contamination. In the 2011 Challenge, over 200,000 youth from over 55 countries will explore the topic of food safety and examine the possible points of contamination our food encounters from exposure to insects and creatures, to unsterile processing and transportation, to unsanitary preparation and storage then find ways to prevent or combat these contaminates.

14 The Champion s Award The Champion s Award is presented to the team that best combines performance in the competitive aspects of FLL, teamwork and represents the true meaning of FLL in its enthusiasm and inspiration to others. This is the most prestigious award and in Minnesota we present two awards, one for Division One and one for Division Two. These selected teams carry the honor of serving as a role model by demonstrating respect, encouragement, and continued gracious professionalism in the heat of competition, both in and out of the arena. These top teams are considered Grand Champion of their division. This year the Division I Championship team has an invitation to represent Minnesota at the LEGOLAND North American Open in California May 20 22, Twiz Bots 6187 Leggo My Lego Robo Nuts 3348 The Fizz 898 Ambulance Aces Winner 3348 THE FIZZ The Division II winning team is invited to represent Minnesota at the 2011 FLL World Festival in St. Louis, April 28 30, Along with the prestige of the championship award, the Natalie Tiedemann scholarship is presented to the MN Champion s Award winning team. Natalie passed away June 3, 2005 at the age of eight and a scholarship fund was created to allow other kids to pursue their dreams in her memory. Natalie s scholarship will go towards the Championship award winning team s participation in the FLL World Festival. This annual scholarship will be in the amount of $500 per team member, up to a maximum of $3000 per team. Thanks to everyone who has generously donated to this scholarship fund. HTK will keep the Natalie Tiedemann Scholarship fund permanently active and will continue to accept donations so we can ensure the longevity of this fund in Natalie s memory. 47 Just Ducky 7 Hydrogen Peroxide 5626 The Things Winner 7 Hydrogen Peroxide