The Inventioneers Top 10 Tips for the FLL Off-Season

Here's another idea to make great use of your off-season!

Tip #5

Start learning about next season’s research project topic – biomedical engineering.

(click the logo for the official challenge page)

(Click here: 2010 FLL season calendar). The 2010 Body Forward™ Challenge “will explore the cutting-edge world of Biomedical Engineering to discover innovative ways to repair injuries, overcome genetic predispositions, and maximize the body's potential, with the intended purpose of leading happier and healthier lives.”

Wow- that’s cool. Your team could be identifying and meeting experts in the biomedical field, planning field trips and searching out some other good resources, too! You can have a research meeting and the team can assign members some homework on the new challenge! Then everyone reports back to share their ideas. By working on some of the research ahead of time, you get ahead of the curve for September and it helps you get excited about the research topic!

The Inventioneers Top 10 Tips for the FLL Off-Season

We are taking the next couple of months to share our best advice for the off-season. The months between your last tournament and the September release of the new challenge can be a real FLL goldmine if you use them wisely! Here's our next tip:

Tip #4

Start a website to help people learn more about your team. You can share your projects on your website, too! It also can be a way to help people contact you and can even help with fundraising. Your website can be free – Google has free websites and there are lots of other free sites, too. Websites designed by kids are always just a little more creative (sorry, our own bias), so have fun (final review by a coach is required before posting the site, though).

You can post team updates, videos, and introduce your team members. Remember to keep privacy in mind - we list team members' first names only. Check out our website at http://www.theinventioneers.com/!

In the News

We've been able to spread the message of FIRST programs and FLL throughout our state and beyond! Check out some of our press coverage that made it online this season:

The Manchester Union Leader

MIT Transportation Center News

Don't Stop Thinking about FLL Now!

Hi teams,

FIRST is doing a cool new thing on YouTube! They are asking for video submissions for all parts of FLL. They are starting with project videos and tournament videos. FIRST's FLL Program Manager, Courtney Hoppe, and yours truly, the Inventioneers appear in the
Call for Tournament Videos clip (click here)!

FLL newcomers and rookie teams, check out the project videos and see the amazing range of creativity there is in the FLL community (click here).The clips are fun to watch but keep your team thinking outside the box and put your own magic into your research presentation. Remember, no team is as creative as yours!

Your friends,
The Inventioneers

Inventioneers Update

We are getting ready for the World Festival!

As many of you know,right now our team is getting ready to compete in the World Festival in Atlanta, Georgia! We are so excited to be retourning to the Georgia Dome to compete with FLL teams from around the globe! Here are some of the ways we are preparing:

* Building up our teamwork skills though games, snacks, and just having FUN
* Perfecting our robot and then running lots of reliability testing!
* Following through on our research down at MIT
* Spreading our Don't DUIT campaign to even more people
* Telling lots people about FLL

* Finding new ways to raise funds to make our trip to Atlanta possible (any help is greatly appreciated! You can email us at TheInventioneers@yahoo.com)

Those are lots of ways how we are preparing to compete at the World Festival but there is one last thing to do, start a packing list! =)

From the Inventioneers' Recipe Book

Here's a quick recipe for another of our favorite team meeting snacks. We only have one thing to say about Donut Muffins - YUM!

Donut Muffins

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 milk
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 salt
1/4 nutmeg

Topping:
1/2 butter, melted
1 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 c sugar mixed