Amanda: Thank you for all of your support, as well as your enthusiasm regarding our results this past weekend.  I am just returning home after spending my weekend in Arlington Heights with 10 students and their families.  Needless to say, the past 4 months that we’ve spent working on Lego Robotics has paid off!   Yes,Team 8622 Stratton Strands: Malaria No More will be bringing home two State Trophies that will not be able to be displayed in the window of the enrichment room because there is no more room to hold trophies; but that’s a good thing.  I won’t go into detail, but I will let the students speak for themselves, so I encourage you to ask them about their experience in this activity. 

Since we began participating in this event in 2006, Stratton has been represented by 12 teams and 4 have gone on to compete at the State Level.  This is the first time that we’ve brought home a State Trophy.  There were 64 teams competing from throughout the entire state of Illinois and only two can be sent to Nationals.  What’s even more impressive is that one of our first group of students from Stratton, who participated in Lego Robotics in 2006, qualified to represent Illinois at the national level!  That team, led by parents Michael Kasten and Mary Petersen, will travel to California in April.  Needless to say, we were just as thrilled for their win as our own. I’m not sure if everyone understands just how A-MAZ-ING those statistics are and what Lego Robotics is all about.  During the closing ceremony, some of the numbers highlighting the number of students who are participating in these events, as well as the number of countries, were released.  There are over 17,000 students who participate in these events, sponsored by FIRST, ranging in age from 5 years through high school.  Our students participate in the FLL portion which is for students ages 9-14. 

If anyone would like additional information, please visit the website at www.fll.org.  There will also be photos and information published about the State Tournament at www.insciteillinois.org which will include photos of all of the teams from the tournament. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all of those who helped to make this possible.  It goes without saying that parent Steve Franke was an invaluable co-coach because it was his time and effort that went into the preparation of the Robot Portion of the competition and this is what brought home the trophies!  The students were able to share their research and newly acquired skills with their classmates, prior to the competition, and they gained added confidence from the experience.  In addition, others who are deserving of recognition include:

• Zanne Newman who first tossed this idea to me in 2006 after experiencing it with her own child.  She has been the single biggest cheerleader for Lego Robotics each year and is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that it happens.  She’s already “planning” next year.
• Bob Smith, parent, who coached a Stratton team this year that placed 4th at the Regional Tournament.  His willingness to help in coordinating our school wide effort this year, as well as raising funds and having his company sponsor a team helped to get Lego Robotics ”off the ground this year.  He willingly came to Stratton and helped to demonstrate what Lego Robotics was all about to EVERY 4th and 5th grade student in the building, so that any interested student could try out. He was also very helpful following the tournament and willingly let our team practice on his Lego table prior to the State  tournament, and continually updated us with information about competing at State.
• The classroom teachers of students on our team:  Robert Breit, Katie Hickey-Snyder, Alice Lee, and Zanne Newman.  Although Lego Robotics was designed to be strictly an after-school project this year, they allowed me to “borrow” their students during the school day, when needed.
• Tracey Ratner who put us in touch with her sister (who works for Hyatt corporation) who arranged to give us a very special rate on the hotel rooms at Hyatt in Schaumburg.  Those rates were MUCH lower than the state-sponsored rates and without that assistance, we would be digging out of a much deeper hole.
• The parents of the students on the team.  EVERY student had at least one parent attend the tournament with him or her and many parents went above and beyond to make this a pleasurable experience.  Mr. Preslar was our “official” photographer and the photos that he takes and posts on his website are outstanding, so we’ll be looking for the State photos, shortly.  Mrs. Preslar was our biggest cheerleader and Ms. Isom attended almost every practice!  Your enthusiasm and support has provided the needed fuel to keep me motivated this year.
• Our team experts: Dr. Stephen Dolan, Carle Hospital (Infectious Diseases) and Francisco Guerra, University of Illinois (Department of Chemistry/Researcher)
• Mrs. Sandra Duckworth, Director of Enrichment for the district, and former Stratton principal and visionary for school wide enrichment, who understood that enrichment does not have to be limited to the four walls of a school building.   I am grateful for her willingness to allow Lego Robotics to be introduced during the school day, with Investigative Learning and its emphasis on project-based learning.  I wanted her to know (publicly) that in looking back, what she allowed Zanita Willis and myself to do will probably never be repeated because of the new emphasis on state-wide testing.

And finally, I would like to thank all of those staff members in the building who wished us well when we left for State and another special thanks to Amanda Sutton whom I will not “embarrass” by saying all that she does for our staff and for anyone in need.  Your kind words of encouragement have been helpful as I’ve dealt with so much personal “loss” this year.  This is where I also thank Mr. Thorpe who filled in for me when I had to be absent from my coaching assignment and also attended the Regional Tournament.  One of the 7 core values of First Lego League is gracious professionalism, and it is something that is demonstrated throughout the tournament and the entire Lego season. 

There were judges and referees cheering on the students, as well as students from other teams congratulating the winners.  Please take the time to congratulate all of the students who participated and ask them about their experiences.  Lego Robotics teaches all of us to be “cheerleaders” for one another and schools could learn a lot from their value system—please check out the other 6.  We should view all of these students (and every student in the building) as “our children” and cheer on their accomplishments each and every day. 

So, in closing, the names of the team members are:  Macheila Anderson (Hickey-Snyder), Joe Franke (Lee), Eugene Keem (Lee), Caleb Patton (Lee), Erin Preslar(Newman), Noemi Sanchez-Rivera (Breit), Najwa Sweid (Lee), Siddharth Swaminathan (Newman), Sean Talley (Lee), and Citlali Villa-Alverez (Hickey-Snder).  It’s all about the relationships!  Check out the attached photo collage!

Thanks.

Izona J. Burgess, Enrichment SpecialistSocial Studies Building LeaderStratton Elementary School-902 N. RandolphChampaign, Il. 61820-217-373-7330burgesiz@champaignschools.org“Act enthusiastic and you become enthusiastic”- Dale Carnegie

Positively a HUGE oversight!  Thank you for mentioning Patricia Franke.  She so very graciously opened her home for practice throughout the entire Lego season and Steve Franke had the students practicing over the Winter Break.  Their table performance improved from a high of 270 during the Regional Tournament to a high of 345 at State.  All of their hard work with Steve definitely paid off!!  I’m sure that I may have overlooked someone else, and I apologize.  The email was written after midnight and a very loooong weekend.  Thanks, also, to all of those who’ve expressed their well wishes to us.  It isdefinitely appreciated.Thanks.Izona