FLL In a Week: Day 5, 3-7 PM - FLL Competition and FLL Jr. Expo!

I'm a Maker, I'm a starter. I love starting new projects, especially those that involve making something, and those that involve engaging with those who might make that something. I create a scavenger hunt for community of a very specific sort, and reach out via the Internet through a mechanism I've developed. It's called The Community Lemonade Game and it works.

Our Gauntlet of The Community Lemonade Game - The Challenge - is to gather FLL teams together in a week and compete on Friday.

DAY 5 - Competition and Expo Day!

The observation some time ago was that it's an entirely different team, the competition team and the delivery team. Thankfully Mary called in all her friends (and she has many). In this sort of environment, everyone is learning, so it is important that everyone understand that flexibility is important.

The Competition and Expo were scheduled to be from 3-7 PM.

Our Multi-National teams consisted of our Chinese visitors and a number of home schooled students (particularly students from Excel Academy which sent a delegation, complete with an amazing mom volunteer and teacher visitors). We were joined by the Oakwood School (for the FLL Jr. Expo), and a team from Riley Elementary (for the FLL).

David Cota brought a mic and stage. We had four FLL teams and four FLL Jr. teams.

We kicked off both the FLL Jr. Expo and the FLL Competition at the same time.

After the FLL Jr. Expo was done, we held the High Five ceremony. We didn't have trophies for them, so one of our Long Beach LEGO User Group members, NZFawkes, made trophies from LEGO bricks. Certificates and trophies for everyone!

We had to adjust the times and the format of the robot competition, or we would have been there beyond the planned 7 PM.

FLL competition high five ceremony.

It seemed, according to the rules, that the goal was to showcase the ways the students addressed the problems of project, core values and robot design. It was also to run the robot and find out who scored the most. Emphasize one, acknowledge the other, so that everyone can be inspired.

Everyone left with a certificate, trophy, pin or medal. They were very nice quality trophies, pins and medals. Everyone felt recognized.

All was good with the world.

I have some personal insights, I will say it tomorrow.

Trish Tsoiasue is a community builder based in Long Beach, California . She builds socially responsible, grassroots communities, believes in the power of play, has many hobbies and interests, and lots and lots of ideas. She is trained in LEGO® Serious Play and the Creative Problem Solving Institute's methods of intentional creativity. The communities she has created and in which she takes most pride are the Long Beach LEGO® User Group, Makersville and the Leading Edge Multi-National Games, which she has led since 2018. She is the inventor of the Community Lemonade Game, a mechanism for path finding and problem solving that she plays. She's convinced that one day you will play it too. Perhaps one day she will define the Community Lemonade Game so that more people can play it. You can find her experiential videos on her Squigglemom YouTube channel (please subscribe!), and when she's not blogging on the Patch, she's blogging on Squigglemom.net.