Anonobots FIRST World Championship
Donation protected
We are the Anonobots, a self-funded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League Robotics team made up of friends and siblings from grades 4-8. We are from Bloomington, Minnesota, U.S.A. and we recently got 2nd place overall out of the 633 teams in the state. We also received 1st place in Teamwork, despite it being our first year together as a team. This placement earned us a spot to compete at the WORLD’S CHAMPIONSHIP against 108 of the best teams from around the world!
We are super excited to represent Minnesota at the FIRST Championship, in St. Louis this year! Throughout the season, we have been working very hard at perfecting our Robot Design and Programming, our Project, and our Core Values to be able to get to the point we’re at now.
As a team, we have created a board game designed to educate its players on the importance of pollinators, and what they can do to help them, we have developed team bonding and teamwork skills that will last us a lifetime, and we have learned a whole lot about engineering and programming by building a fully autonomous robot that can complete tasks. (Please see the bottom of this page for more details on all of these things!)
WE ARE VERY PROUD TO HAVE ADVANCED THIS FAR INTO THE SEASON! AND WE ARE WORKING HARD TO PREPARE FOR THE WORLD'S COMPETITION IN ST. LOUIS.
As we started looking into the costs that will be associated with World’s we realized that we needed to do some serious fundraising to make our trip possible. Along with Registration, we need to get 7 team members to St. Louis, cover hotels, food, etc. We also found out that at the World’s Competition all of the teams decorate their Pits and bring custom team buttons that they trade with the each other. This sounds like a great way to meet new kids from across the world and to create a collection of fabulous mementos that we will enjoy looking back on in the years to come.
All of the costs associated with our upcoming competition are why we created this site.
If you could help support us in our endeavors to go to the World’s competition in St. Louis it would really “MEAN THE WORLDS” to us! (Get what we did there? In case you haven’t guessed, our team LOVES to make terrible puns and try to drive our coaches nuts. In fact, our longest run of puns in a row is currently 18 and we’re always trying to break our record.)
After researching and adding up everything we discovered that we’ll need around $9,600 to cover our whole team’s expenses for World’s. YIKES! We are going to talk to businesses in our area, contact our friends & relatives, and do everything we can to raise enough money to help us get to World’s. If you are feeling generous, and would like to support our team WE'D APPRECIATE ANY DONATION YOU ARE WILLING TO MAKE!!!
*******
To give you a bit more information before you decide, we’ll outline the main areas of FIRST Lego League and what we’re working on this year. We know that the name often brings to mind “playing with Legos.” Although playing with Legos is tons of fun, and educational/creative in its own right, this is NOT what FLL is actually about.
FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL®) is an international robotics program that includes more than 200,000 kids in 63 countries. Teams collaborate to build and program an autonomous robot to score points on a thematic playing surface (the Robot Game) and to create an innovative solution to a real-world problem correlated to the yearly theme (the Project), all while guided by the FLL Core Values. These three elements; the Robot Game, the Project, and FLL Core Values make up what is called The Challenge.
The Challenge - What a team does…
Each year the details of the yearly Challenge are released in August. Teams work together to prepare for each section.
THE ROBOT GAME
Using a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Robot, teams design, build and program an autonomous robot to achieve specific missions inspired by the yearly Challenge. Teams compete in three 2.5 minute rounds and are evaluated on mechanical design, programming, design innovation & strategy.
(See images below for a Summary of our Robot Design and Programming so far this year.)
THE PROJECT
In conjunction with the yearly theme (this year’s theme was Animal Allies), teams conduct research to Solve a Real-World Problem, Develop an Innovative Solution and present and share their work at the competition and within their communities. They are evaluated in Research, Innovative Solution and Presentation.
While doing our research this year we learned a LOT about the importance of Pollinators that we didn’t know before. All of this research led us to identify a problem that, if not addressed, stands to negatively impact every single person in the world. That problem is: Because most people don’t understand how important pollinators are they sometimes harm them without knowing it. If this continues, foods that we all know and love will start to disappear.
We are creating a Board Game to educate people on the importance of Pollinators. We met with Experts on Pollination and Experts in the Game Industry, including a Professional Game Designer. We are confident that our approach of making a Board Game that people WANT to play (with learning as a bonus side effect of the game) will make a much larger impact than any solution already existing. Our Game also encourages Family Interaction and learning together.
THE HUNGRY GAME will educate players on the threats that pollinators face and what can be done to help.
Game play focuses on 3 levels of threats, each with a different amount of player influence that is directly tied to real world situations.
CORE VALUES
The Core Values are the cornerstones of the FLL program. Teams are evaluated on HOW they work together, as well as inspiration, teamwork and gracious professionalism. The Anonobots won 1st place in Teamwork this year, despite it being our first year together as a team.
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO CONSIDER OUR REQUEST -- WE REALLY APPRECIATE IT!
We are super excited to represent Minnesota at the FIRST Championship, in St. Louis this year! Throughout the season, we have been working very hard at perfecting our Robot Design and Programming, our Project, and our Core Values to be able to get to the point we’re at now.
As a team, we have created a board game designed to educate its players on the importance of pollinators, and what they can do to help them, we have developed team bonding and teamwork skills that will last us a lifetime, and we have learned a whole lot about engineering and programming by building a fully autonomous robot that can complete tasks. (Please see the bottom of this page for more details on all of these things!)
WE ARE VERY PROUD TO HAVE ADVANCED THIS FAR INTO THE SEASON! AND WE ARE WORKING HARD TO PREPARE FOR THE WORLD'S COMPETITION IN ST. LOUIS.
As we started looking into the costs that will be associated with World’s we realized that we needed to do some serious fundraising to make our trip possible. Along with Registration, we need to get 7 team members to St. Louis, cover hotels, food, etc. We also found out that at the World’s Competition all of the teams decorate their Pits and bring custom team buttons that they trade with the each other. This sounds like a great way to meet new kids from across the world and to create a collection of fabulous mementos that we will enjoy looking back on in the years to come.
All of the costs associated with our upcoming competition are why we created this site.
If you could help support us in our endeavors to go to the World’s competition in St. Louis it would really “MEAN THE WORLDS” to us! (Get what we did there? In case you haven’t guessed, our team LOVES to make terrible puns and try to drive our coaches nuts. In fact, our longest run of puns in a row is currently 18 and we’re always trying to break our record.)
After researching and adding up everything we discovered that we’ll need around $9,600 to cover our whole team’s expenses for World’s. YIKES! We are going to talk to businesses in our area, contact our friends & relatives, and do everything we can to raise enough money to help us get to World’s. If you are feeling generous, and would like to support our team WE'D APPRECIATE ANY DONATION YOU ARE WILLING TO MAKE!!!
*******
To give you a bit more information before you decide, we’ll outline the main areas of FIRST Lego League and what we’re working on this year. We know that the name often brings to mind “playing with Legos.” Although playing with Legos is tons of fun, and educational/creative in its own right, this is NOT what FLL is actually about.
FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL®) is an international robotics program that includes more than 200,000 kids in 63 countries. Teams collaborate to build and program an autonomous robot to score points on a thematic playing surface (the Robot Game) and to create an innovative solution to a real-world problem correlated to the yearly theme (the Project), all while guided by the FLL Core Values. These three elements; the Robot Game, the Project, and FLL Core Values make up what is called The Challenge.
The Challenge - What a team does…
Each year the details of the yearly Challenge are released in August. Teams work together to prepare for each section.
THE ROBOT GAME
Using a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Robot, teams design, build and program an autonomous robot to achieve specific missions inspired by the yearly Challenge. Teams compete in three 2.5 minute rounds and are evaluated on mechanical design, programming, design innovation & strategy.
(See images below for a Summary of our Robot Design and Programming so far this year.)
THE PROJECT
In conjunction with the yearly theme (this year’s theme was Animal Allies), teams conduct research to Solve a Real-World Problem, Develop an Innovative Solution and present and share their work at the competition and within their communities. They are evaluated in Research, Innovative Solution and Presentation.
While doing our research this year we learned a LOT about the importance of Pollinators that we didn’t know before. All of this research led us to identify a problem that, if not addressed, stands to negatively impact every single person in the world. That problem is: Because most people don’t understand how important pollinators are they sometimes harm them without knowing it. If this continues, foods that we all know and love will start to disappear.
We are creating a Board Game to educate people on the importance of Pollinators. We met with Experts on Pollination and Experts in the Game Industry, including a Professional Game Designer. We are confident that our approach of making a Board Game that people WANT to play (with learning as a bonus side effect of the game) will make a much larger impact than any solution already existing. Our Game also encourages Family Interaction and learning together.
THE HUNGRY GAME will educate players on the threats that pollinators face and what can be done to help.
Game play focuses on 3 levels of threats, each with a different amount of player influence that is directly tied to real world situations.
CORE VALUES
The Core Values are the cornerstones of the FLL program. Teams are evaluated on HOW they work together, as well as inspiration, teamwork and gracious professionalism. The Anonobots won 1st place in Teamwork this year, despite it being our first year together as a team.
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO CONSIDER OUR REQUEST -- WE REALLY APPRECIATE IT!
Organizer
John Mathiasen
Organizer
Minneapolis, MN