This week the team captain of Israeli FRC team 6740, Glue Gun & Glitter came to visit the LigerBots to promote international cooperation and get a feel for LigerBots operations. Glue Gun & Glitter is based at the Shvilim democratic school in Pardes-Hana Karkur, Israel. Although this is only their third season they have been doing tremendous work helping form new FIRST teams internationally. After helping in Israel and Africa last year, they set their sights on China and America. Their team captain, Amit, came to a LigerBots meeting this past week. After a quick tour of the shop and meeting areas, he met with team member Doug and business mentor Chuck Tanowitz to discuss 6740’s outreach efforts and what they could do in America. Among other plans, Amit expects to represent his team at the upcoming FLL Eastern MA State Championship, to be hosted by the LigerBots on the December 15 at Newton North High School. Then LigerBots who concentrate on technical projects joined the group for a discussion about potential collaboration between the technical sides of both teams. After figuring out how to navigate language barriers and time zones, a decision was made to try and coordinate weekly calls between the teams during build season. The hope is to discuss strategy, design, and build issues to help eachother grow and problem-solve. For more on team #6740 Glue Gun & Glitter please visit their website, Facebook page, or Blue Alliance page.

From staffing and scheduling to the timing for the many events and booths, all hands are on deck in preparation for the coming FIRST LEGO League (FLL) tournament! From 9am to 3pm on December 15 the LigerBots will host the Eastern MA FLL state championship at Newton North High School, along with a maker fair and robot zoo of FIRST Robotics Competition robots from around the region. Along with 48 competing FLL teams and 10 FLL Jr. teams, 60 Girl Scouts in grades K-5 will be hosted by our volunteers when they do hands on activities provided by maker fair exhibitors to earn STEAM merit patches. Since the LigerBots will be providing many of these STEAM activities, we are hard at work gathering supplies and making informative flyers about our offerings.

LigerBots who have not been planning for the tournament have been in the workshop preparing for the start of build season. The disassembly of our 2018 robot has been a sad process, but it’s remains are being used to teach our rookies and salvage parts. Our rookies have also been learning CAD so that they are able to participate on the same level as returning members when the season comes.