The Ligerbots end of summer activities included hosting a virtual FLL Info Night on Monday August 24th! We introduced the parents to FIRST and FLL, talked about our own experiences with FLL, and showed them how to get involved and start a team. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we also discussed 2020 changes to the game to ensure safety for all.  

Parents, if you missed the FLL Info Night but are interested in learning about FLL or FIRST, or would like to start a team, the links are below. 
FLL Presentation
FIRST website
FLL Challenge 2020-2021 (divisions are further down the page)

The LigerBots will be hosting its annual FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) information night online on August 24, 2020, at 8 PM. If you would like to attend — or cannot attend but are interested — please fill out this form. You can also email [email protected] for more information. You can find more information about FLL here.

This week the LigerBots wrapped up the third session of cAMP and we’ve been amazed at the amount of enthusiasm and support for this program. Teachers and students alike have been having so much fun learning and gaining new skills.

Each of our two-week sessions ends with a showcase in which the students show off something that they accomplished. On Friday we saw cool CAD creations of a living room, dream house bedroom, and a library! From the music class, we listened to songs authored by students in under six hours that sound crazy professional as well! One student even showed off a drawing of a well constructed Aquaponics system.

In addition to learning, some students have used the time to continue seeing their friends and meet new people with similar interests. This summer we’ll reach around 200 students from Newton and Lexington, Needham, Boston, Brookline, to even kids outside of Massachusetts coming from states like New Jersey and Ohio.

Our teen counselors gain the experience of teaching and interacting with younger students while building their resumé and having fun! We couldn’t do this without them. Providing a way for them to teach topics they were passionate about to so many different grade levels not only benefited the students but helped them learn through teaching. Our camp is taught by almost 100 counselors that are not only from Newton, but other cities including Andover, Cambridge, Brookline, and many more.

As we enter our fourth session of cAMP, we hope to continue our mission of motivating kids to continue being learners.

For parents who need a summer camp this summer for their kids (for a couple hours of much needed and well deserved break) the LigerBots Awesome Mentorship Project (AMP) is launching a virtual day camp. This will take place online, likely over Discord, on weekdays from 9:00-12:30. Each session is two weeks long, and the dates are as follows:
July 6 – 17
July 20 – 31
August 3 – 14
August 17 – 28

The commitment for mentors who want to be teachers is three hours per week for two weeks, totaling to roughly six hours, plus necessary training.

Links to sign up:
Parents:  https://tinyurl.com/AMPSCParent
Mentors interested in being teachers:  https://tinyurl.com/AMPSCTeacher

The deadline to sign up for session 1 is July 15 for teachers, and the deadline for parents and teachers for sessions 2-4 is July 22.

This is an example of a day at our camp.  Classes will be  based on grade level, so material will be appropriate as well as fun and engaging!

We have been keeping busy during quarantine! Not long after the cancellation of school, a couple of team members thought about making a mentor program. The program would have LigerBots team members do interesting and fun activities with elementary school kids via the internet. This would give young students something to do in quarantine as well as give team members practice with teaching. We decided to call it the Awesome Mentor Project.

Our first mentor pair was formed on the 14th of April and things rapidly grew from there. Many parents requested that the LigerBots mentor their children to keep them busy. It didn’t take long before other students in Newton and members of other FRC teams started joining as mentors.

Students and mentors usually meet once a week for an hour. Activities include elephant toothpaste, soda rockets, rock candy, and puppets. They also sometimes play games online together such as Minecraft. 

The program has been a huge success with 82 student-mentor pairs. We plan on continuing the project over the summer and expand it into a form of internet summer camp to keep students and highschoolers busy. We will keep the programm going for as long as we are all stuck in quarantine. We will see you all as soon as possible!

Links:

Elephant Toothpaste:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant’s_toothpaste

AMP:https://docs.google.com/document/d/19-xKF3FRk6OVRe1My-cYsetb7mDPzq0ocm5SxMM0YLc/edit

Twitter:https://twitter.com/ligerbots

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/LigerBots/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/ligerbots_frc2877/