Team Leaders,

MSHSL/FIRST State Championship

The final State Championship qualification rankings were posted at the beginning of the week (https://mnfirst.org/off-season-events/mshsl-championship/ ).   If your team didn’t qualify, it would great if you’d bring your team to Mariucci Arena on May 19th to support your favorite teams.

Season wrap up

The 2018 Season was a banner year for Minnesota Teams.  Minnesota teams attended 10 Regionals (Great Northern, Lake Superior, Northern Lights, Heartland, Central Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Star, Medtronic, Seven Rivers).  Teams from Minnesota won a collective of 114 awards:
•       6 Chairman’s
•       3 Engineering Inspiration
•       5 WFFA
•       10 DL
•       5 VOY
•       11 Winners
•       15 Finalists
•       6 Imagery
•       4 Innovation in Control
•       4 Quality
•       5 Creativity
•       4 GP
•       5 Excellence in Engineering
•       4 Team Spirit
•       5 Entrepreneurship
•       4 Rookie Inspiration
•       2 Rookie All Star
•       5 Judges’
•       3 Highest Rookie Seed
•       4 Industrial Design
•       4 Safety

As of today, 30 Minnesota teams have qualified for championships.

Twin Cities Public Television Hands-on Science program

Just as a reminder, FIRST Robotics will be the topic of the Hands-on Science show to air on Twin Cities Channel 2 at 8am this Sunday, April 15th,  (https://www.tpt.org/hands-on-science/about/ ). Our local MC, Yoji Shimizu, and 5 teams, 1816, 2177, 2500, 3130, and 4536, explain what it takes to make a robot run and perform tasks.

MN Native News radio

White Earth Circle of Life Academy (team 3367) was featured this week on the MN Native News radio program.  An online podcast can be found at:

http://ampers.org/category/minnesota-native-news/

Height Differential Just One campaign

The FTC team, Height Differential, has put together some marketing materials to help you recruit mentors and volunteers.  See their website

http://www.heightdifferential.com/justone/

Maker Faire

The MN Mini Maker Faire is Saturday, June 2nd, Grandstand at the State Fair.  If you’d like to exhibit your robot, the call for participants is out and applications are due by April 30th.  See the Maker Faire website for details:

http://msp.makerfaire.com

Regards, Mark Lawrence
Chairman, MN FIRST Regional Planning Committee