It’s Good to Travel, It’s Great to Be Home

I’M PLAYING A GAME – The World Robot Olympiad Version of the Community Lemonade Game. I’ve created myself a challenge to build community around the Southern California Qualifier of the World Robot Olympiad, that will be held by the Robotics Society of Southern California (RSSC). So the Gauntlet… the challenge… is to successfully execute the competition on August 11th, 2018. In my quest for community around the World Robot Olympiad, I have a number of goals: space, equipment, coaches, skills, materials, players.

Will you make Lemonade with me?

It’s good to be home.  My ‘roomie’ at Buf State, Columbian Olga Lucia, was aghast at the amount of time I spend on the computer.  I’m transposed now.  I’m in a different place but yes, still blogging.  I explained to Olga Lucia that when  I’m on a mission, well, the writing – the blogging – is the conduit to success, so it must be done.  It’s my tool for finding community.  It’s my motivation to keeps me moving on that forward path until I find success or success finds me…  whatever that success might look like.  Does it sound ambiguous?  It’s part of the game we play.

It may seem to you, dear reader, that I have forgotten the purpose of the game.  Let me remind myself (and you) of the quest I have created for myself.

In my quest for community around the World Robot Olympiad (WRO), I have a number of goals: space, equipment, coaches, skills, materials, players.

It’s Wednesday, two days and a bit since I returned home.  There is a lot of busy stuff that I’ve done, that you probably won’t care to know.  I’ve made much progress, that I would like to share with you.

On Monday Friend Mary and I chatted with Friend Will Wong who runs the WRO-USA program and new Friend Karen, who is with Juniper Networks.  Now, I haven’t mentioned to you about Juniper Networks’ role in the WRO-USA and its’ new role in the global WRO.  Let me just put forward to you now, that Juniper Networks was a key sponsor of the WRO-USA from the start, and is now a global sponsor of the WRO.  According to the June 18 press release on Juniper Networks’ website:

“Juniper will work closely with WRO to promote, stage and further develop this global competition that attracts tens of thousands of young people.”

We’re still working out the details, but I’m hopeful that I will find some Juniper help in meeting my goals: space, equipment, coaches, skills, materials, players.

I also visited with Friend Laura, at DeVry University, Long Beach.  Over the next several weeks, Makersville will be working with a few students working on their WRO entries at the DeVry facility.  There’s still space for new players, and I’ll be working to add Creative Problem Solving to the other skills that we will offer, such as 3d printing, creative LEGO(r), Video making for YouTube, hacking the brick, sewing, Great Ball Contraptions and Rube Goldberg Contraption Skills.  We will have with us Friends John, Paula, Robinne, NZ, Benjamin1121.  Squigglemom will be there.  Now that we are ultra-focused on the WRO, we are throwing the doors open for a low, low access fee.  We are in nurture mode and we want the kids to have as much time as they might need or want to do the best they can.

On Tuesday I connected digitally with several interns who will be convening on Thursday for the first time.  It’s a result of the Long Beach Call program which places incoming 12th grade students at summer internships.

I met with Friend Jacob for the first time, to discuss the opportunities at his space in Long Beach’s Retro Row district.  I think we might be able to get his help with a group of folks in a meetup called ‘Uncoded’. (previously Long Beach Tech).

I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOU – Tools, Techniques, and the Ubiquitous Toolbox

 

In our ‘Facilitating CPS’ class that I just completed, those with not enough foresight to bring their copy of ‘CPS Tools and Techniques’ from the previous year were desperate to get their hands on the two reference copies provided at the class.  This, so as to refresh themselves with the detailed descriptions of the techniques that are used to bring out divergent and convergent thinking.

Before I took that first class in LEGO(r) Serious Play (LSP)  in 2015, I wanted to get the opinion of some who had taken it before me.  When you are paying for training with your own dollars, you want to seek out those opinions.  Friend Robert Rasmussen of Rasmussen Consulting is very kind even from the first contact by email.  At the time, I didn’t know that he was the onetime head of LEGO(r) Education and a creator of the LSP methodology. There are just a few folks who are empowered with the ability to train others to facilitate in LSP.  I asked for some contacts to whom I might speak, so as to reassure myself.  It was at that time I first heard mention of the ‘toolbox’.  LSP is a great way to model your story as you create your future.  I imagine that there are just a few who know how to facilitate a complete situation from problem definition through the definition of an action/implementation path.

The word ‘toolbox’, I’ve come to understand, is often used in facilitation circles.  It refers to the set of ‘tools’ that the facilitator has available to him/her, through educational seminars, reading, work and casual exposure and practice.  Brainstorming is a tool in my toolbox.  Brainwriting is a tool in my toolbox.  I have other tools, perhaps they are stored in other toolboxes than the Problem Solving toolbox.  The BSA Inventing Merit Badge is a tool in my Curriculum toolbox.  The Community Lemonade Game is a tool in my Community Development toolbox.

In the World Robot Olympiad Version of the Community Lemonade Game the satchel holds everything I need near term.  The Satchel is my – albeit very cluttered – toolbox.  It contains my brainstorming tool, my fabric, my scissors, my Post Its, and my Sharpies, my 3D print designs and my soldering iron.

I hope I am not confusing you.  Sometimes I share as I try to make sense of things.

Trish Tsoiasue is a community builder based in Long Beach, California . She builds socially responsible, grassroots communities, has many hobbies and interests, and lots and lots of ideas. She is trained in LEGO(r) Serious Play and the Creative Problem Solving Institute‘s methods of intentional creativity. The communities she has created and in which she takes most pride are the Long Beach LEGO User Group, Makersville and ScoutMaker (a prototype community started at Title I, Lincoln Elementary School through a grant from Honda Research and Development arranged by the Long Beach BSA ).  You can find all posts related to this current game on the Squigglemom website.