Gorge FLL

2023/24 FLL

This year we built on our work from last year, which is shown below, to expand our FLL Program. We started and mentored 14 FLL Teams (shown below) throughout the Gorge from four different elementary schools and the Hood River Middle School, and ran a Regional FLL Competition for 19 teams in the Colombia River Gorge.

To achieve this feat we organized with each of the schools to run after school practices where we came in and mentored each of the teams at every practice. We were able to obtain 32 Spike Prime Lego Robotics kits to lend out to teams, and $10,000 to fund all our or teams for practices, snacks, T-shirts, and their tournament. This was only possible through the incredible donations from ORTOP, Colombia Gorge STEM Hub, and local buisnesses.

2022/23 FLL

COVID-19 Shut Down STEM…

In March 2020, our school district abandoned STEM programs in our K-5 schools. Which unfortunately included First® LEGO® League (FLL). A05 tried to fight and advocate to keep the FLL program alive in our community through the school district, but it was to no avail.

A05 saw this as unacceptable. FLL started the passion for innovation, creativity, and engineering within much of the team at a young age. A05 decided to reboot FLL in our community without the school district.

"FLL started me on robotics in 4th grade. Now, as an A05 member, it fulfills me to be able to offer the same opportunities to students that I had when I was little. Seeing the smiles on students' faces and that robotics sparkle in their eyes is well worth the time we've put in." - Lucas Elliott (Senior Outreach Captain)

A05 reached out to multiple local K-5 schools within Hood River County including Westside, May Street, Parkdale, Mid Valley, and Cascade Locks Elementary Schools, asking for after-school time to mentor FLL teams. Our team members traveled to these schools to mentor FLL teams and prepare them for competition. Parkdale, Mid Valley, and Cascade Locks are underserved in our community when it comes to STEM opportunities, and the enchantment in their eyes after creating their robots is unmatched.

"Mentoring the Parkdale teams "GirlBots" and "TheLegoMasters" was often the highlight of my week. I taught them the basics and watched them take off. The Parkdale gym was always full of laughter and creativity with those young engineers." - Kaitaro Hawkins (Senior Multimedia Captain)

After multiple delays due to inclement weather, A05 was finally able to host the FLL QT Tournament. With the help of ORTOP, many of the referees, officials, and other roles were A05 members or mentors. This event was many of our elementary school teams' first official competition, and their excitement was engaging. The Parkdale "TheLegoMasters" walked away with the 1st place core values award, beating the seasoned Portland guest teams.

We achieved our goal to reboot FLL within our community and hope to reinstate FLL in the K-5 school curriculum, but until then, we will continue mentoring and building up these teams ourselves.

2023 / 2024

Teams:

Parkdale

• Lego Masters

• Parkdale Girlbots

  • Regional Judges Award