Be a FIRST LEGO League Volunteer

Save to Favorites

Rhode Island Students of the Future and FIRST LEGO League Rhode Island needs volunteer judges and referees for our upcoming tournament season!

Judges meet with teams to review their robot design and programming, their research projects and to evaluate their core values. Referees keep score during the robot game matches. FIRST LEGO League teams are groups of 9 - 14 year olds who have spent the past 10-14 weeks building and programming a robot to score points on the FIRST LEGO League game field, and conducting research into a topic related to this year’s theme, "Animal Allies."

Training for Judges will be held Wednesday, 26 October 2016 at 6PM in the East Providence City Hall Conference Room at 145 Taunton Ave., E. Prov., RI 02914. (If you cannot make this training, there are also online modules you can complete.)

Referee training is Wednesday, Nov. 9th at 6:00 pm, also at East Providence City Hall.

Event dates:

Qualifiers:

19 November 2016 Qualifier, organized and hosted by Gordon School, East Providence

3 December 2016 Qualifier, organized and hosted by Ricci Middle School, North Providence

10 December 2016 Qualifier, organized by AIR 4-H, hosted by Portsmouth Middle School, Portsmouth

10 December 2016 Qualifier, organized and hosted by All Saints STEAM Academy, Middletown

17 December 2016 Qualifier, organized and hosted by Pier Middle School, Narragansett

Championship:

14 January 2017 Championship, Roger Williams University, Bristol

Additional Events that also need volunteers:

26 October 2016, 6 PM Judge Training, East Providence City Hall Conference Rooms

9 November 2016, 6 pm, Referee Training, East Providence City Hall Conference Rooms

18 November 2016 San Miguel School in-house tournament, 1:30 - 3:30 pm

21 January 2017 Robot Invitational (local event), Martin Middle School, East Providence

3 June 2017 FLLjr Expo. East Providence

Getting Started:

For those of you that volunteered last year you can log into your account, (first timers will need to create an account), on the Volunteer Information Management System, (VIMS) https://my.usfirst.org/FIRSTPortal/Login/VIMS_login.aspx?lo=y to select the event and role you wish to volunteer for. Background Checks are good for 3 years so if you got one last year you're still good. If you certified as a judge last year you don't have to take the training again but will need to complete the Certification quizzes for your role, (80% to pass). for example, a Project Judge would need certification as a Judge + Project, Core Values Judge would need Judge + Core Values and Robot Design would need Judge + Robot Design. After you log-on to VIMS you will be faced with a screen containing very little information. Click on the box labeled "Apply for an Event" then select Program "FLL", Select Country, "USA" Select State from the dropdown, "Rhode Island" and then click on "Search Events". This should fill the browser window with the Events we have planned. Find the event you wish to volunteer for and press "Select". From the list at the left select the role or roles you are volunteering for, then press "Add". For Select days available check the box, (ours are single day events). When done press " Apply for Selected Roles". After I have assigned you to a role at an Event you will receive an email informing you of that.

Note: If you are interested in helping with the FLLjr Expo, in order to see the event on VIMS you need to check the box on the home page for FLLjr as well as FLL prior to clicking on "Search for Events".

Look forward to working with you again this season. Remember we want it to be FUN, both for the kids and for us. We can't build enthusiasm for STEAM if it's not enjoyable.

Questions? Email Dick Taylor, FIRST LEGO League Judge Advisor, dtaylor724@verizon.net.