The 2008 Team has set its roster for the season

The team and staff can't wait to get started on what will be a terrific season as we explore global climate change and build a wicked cool robot! Details can be found at the 'Team FUUSEion' Web site: www.fuuseion.org, or you can contact Frank Merrick at 679-2524 or .

Team FUUSEion Wins State Awards

Team FUUSEion was awarded the "Rookie All-Star" award as "the team to watch" at the LEGO League State championships on Saturday December 8, 2007.

Frank Merrick was awarded the Coaches award!

Team FUUSEion Rocked the House at UNH!

Team FUUSEion, our FUUSE LEGO Robotics Team, competed in their first ever regional LEGO League competition at UNH on November 10th, and came away with not just A trophy, but THE trophy! They were declared the overall winners of the competition in a field of 15 teams, many of whom had years of LEGO League experience.

Team photo
The Champion Team (photo by Jay Reiter)

During the day-long event, Team FUUSEion had to endure three formal judging sessions on separate topics, along with six rounds of intense ‘table’ competitions where they put their robot through its paces. One of the judging sessions included the presentation of their energy-savings ideas for the church, the other two reviewed teamwork and technical expertise.

Trophies were awarded at the end of the very long day. At that time the team had no certain knowledge what they might be winning, although they believed they might be taking home a second place trophy for robot performance. As the trophies were slowly being handed out, it became clear that there was no second place robot performance award as there had been in previous years, and they thought they might be going home empty handed. The final trophy to be awarded was the Champion’s Award. The presenter read the following description of the award:

“This most prestigious award goes to the team who, in the big picture, is the strongest in all the categories combined. The Champion’s Award winners are the total package — the embodiment of the FIRST LEGO League Vision. The Champion’s Award encompasses five key elements of Technical and Team Performance — Robot Design, Robot Performance Score, Project Presentation and Teamwork. In addition, the Champion’s Award honors the team’s understanding and practice of the true meaning of FIRST and FIRST LEGO League.”

You can imagine our surprise and delight as the announcer then called Team FUUSEion up to the podium to claim their trophy!

Months ago our team started with nothing — no infrastructure, no money, even no team members. All we had was the vision of creating a LEGO League team that was about much more than just the robot – a team where we explicitly lived our UU principles in a wider world and worked to maintain a foundation of individual and team character. Coming so far, so fast, was a real accomplishment.

This accomplishment does not just belong to the students on the team themselves, or the students and the coaches. The support from all corners of the FUUSE community was simply overwhelming – from financial sponsorship, to enthusiastic encouragement by church leadership, to infrastructure support, to the most committed and supportive parents imaginable. This was a community effort of the most meaningful sort, and the team would like to deeply thank all of FUUSE for making this possible!

— Frank Merrick

 

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