Team Neon Supernova is the North Florida FIRST LEGO League Champions for the Trash Trek Season. We will compete at the North America Open Championship in Carlsbad, CA in May. Help us make the trip, and support these stellar kids in STEM!

1. NEON
SUPERNOVA
Help the FLL North Florida
Champions compete at the
FIRST North American Open
Championship in Carlsbad,
California in May
(click to advance slides)

2. WHAT IS FIRST?
• FIRST = For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
• FIRST is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization devoted to helping young people
discover and develop a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math
(STEM)
• Founded over 25 years ago by inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST is a Sport for the
Mind where young, innovative, and creative minds explore science and
technology, solving real-world problems and competing in exciting, hands-on
robotics challenges
• Through their FIRST experience, participants win recognition, gain self-
confidence, develop people and life skills, make new friends, and perhaps
discover an unforeseen career path
• 360,000 kids in all FIRST programs last year: Jr FLL, FLL, FTC, FRC
• $25 Million of Scholarships in 2016

3. WHAT IS FIRST LEGO LEAGUE?
• Grades 4-8; ages 9-14
• 290,000 kids last season, in more than 80 countries
• After School Activity; Once a week, More often for competition
• Kids Learn and Compete in Three Focus Areas
• Core Values = Teamwork, Gracious Professionalism
• Robot Game = Robot Building, Programming, Missions
• Project = Create Real-Life Solution and Present
• Competitions: Qualifiers, Regionals (UNF for NE-FL)
• For more info, see firstlegoleague.org

4. FIRST LEGO LEAGUE (CONT.)
• Proven, verifiable impact!
• FIRST LEGO League’s positive impact on participants is
gratifying and well documented. Over 88% are more
interested in doing well in school, and 87% have more interest
in attending college.
• Research challenges facing today’s scientists
• Design, build, test and program robots
• Apply real-world math and science concepts
• Learn critical thinking, team-building, and presentation
skills
• Participate in tournaments and celebrations
• Understand and practice Gracious Professionalism®

5. TRASH TREK: THEME FOR 2015/16 SEASON
• Theme this season is “Trash Trek”, started August last year
• We’re not talking trash – we’re cleaning it up! In the 2015
FIRST® LEGO® League TRASH TREK Challenge, 290,000
children ages 9 to 16 from over 80 countries will explore the
fascinating world of trash. From collection, to sorting, to smart
production and reuse, there is more to your trash than meets
the eye. Join FIRST LEGO League teams on a Trash Trek to
discover the hidden (or not so hidden) world of trash!
• FIRST LEGO League (FLL®) challenges kids to think like
scientists and engineers. During the TRASH TREK season, teams
will choose and solve a real-world trash problem in the
Project. They will also build, test, and program an autonomous
robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology to solve a set of
missions in the Robot Game. Throughout their experience,
teams will operate under FLL’s signature set of Core Values,
celebrating discovery, teamwork, and Gracious
Professionalism®.

6. IN FLL, KIDS LEARN…
Core Values
Teamwork
Leadership
Integrity
Respect
Listening
Patience
Cooperation
Guidance
Contribution
Self-Confidence
Project
Solutions
Web Design
Social Networking
Presentation Skills
Speaking
Communication Skills
Artistic
Acting
Robot
Computer Skills
Programming
Compass Directions
Friction and Torque
Angular Momentum
Geometry
Gravity and Inertia
Gear Ratios
Engineering

7. WHO ARE WE?
• FLL Team Neon Supernova
• Six Middle-school Kids: four girls, two boys, all talented and great
grades (the blonde long-haired one is a boy!)
• Seasoned, Winning Coaches
• Brady P. Merkel, 3rd year, Head coach, Engineering and
Programming [VP at Bank of America, Software Development]
• Kim Larsen, 4th year, Assistant Coach, Core Values Specialist
[Accountant]
• Winning History
• 2015/16: Champions at both Qualifier AND North Florida
Regionals; 2nd in Robot Performance
• 2014/15 as the LEGO DestroyerZ; State Champions in Core
Values; 3rd in Robot Design
• 2013/14 as the LEGO Bosses; Trophied at Regionals
• Aligned with Mark McComb’s Renaissance Jax non-profit
organization to further evangelize FIRST in NE Florida

9. NORTH FLORIDA CHAMPIONS
• Jan 16: Competed against 31 elite North Florida teams at the
North Florida Regional Competition at UNF; with teams
spanning from Ocala, Lake City, Gainesville, and even South
Georgia
• Won overall Champion trophy
• Won 2nd-place trophy in Robot Performance (another team
had a higher score by an impressive 100 points)
• Won invitation to tour Mayo Clinic’s Robot Medical facilities
in February—further inspiring the kids in Medicine and
Engineering!
• Won the invitation to represent North Florida at
the North America Open Championship in
Carlsbad, California in May
• Thu May 19 – Mon May 23

10. OUR ROBOT - NITRO
• Built using LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kit (req’d)
• Gyro - Enables accurate heading-based moves
• Light Sensors - Two
• Raw mode for more sensitive 0-1000 Scale
• Line Followers
• Square Up
• Proportional logic to minimize error
• Two Drive Motors
• Two Arm Motors
• Lightweight, Simple Design
• 557 Points in Trash Trek, tooling now for more

11. OUR TRASH TREK PROJECT
• The Team Project, “R3Score” encourages restaurants to take
steps to be eco-friendly and responsible. Kids use R3Score to
survey and score restaurants on their adoption of 3Rs (Reduce,
Recycle and Reuse). With a restaurant’s permission, the results
are shared on a mobile-friendly web site and social media. The
goal: inform concerned customers to “vote with their wallet”
and choose restaurants that strive to make a difference.
• Project Site: https://r3score.firebaseapp.com
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/neonsupernova
• Twitter: @neon_supernovas
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/neon_supernovas/
• Google+/YouTube: Neon Supernova

12. FUNDRAISING
• Request
• Donate (tax deductible!) to the team so they can compete at the North
American Open Competition
• Tax ID: 46-3826037
• What You Get
• Social Media posts
• Notoriety/PR
• Report/Pictures/Videos
• Love and Thanks
•Future Leaders in STEM!
https://www.gofundme.com/xgjw59r8

13. CONTACT INFO
• Brady P. Merkel, Head Coach
• brady@merkel.net
• C: 904.252.3769
• Kim Larsen, Assistant Coach
• kmurphdogg@aol.com
• C: 904.894.5997
• H: 904.683.7671
• Mark McCombs, Renaissance Jax, FIRST Representative
• mark@rjax.org
• C: 904.616.9869
• Want a Team presentation and meet the kids? Contact Us!

14. MORE PICS AND VIDS
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6TiNg9_pwdlkFVi9_nu0nQ
Members of the team meet with a Social Media expert for tips on marketing their project
R3Score web site

15. Before running Nitro (the team’s Robot) for a scoring run, they must get it inspected for any
non-LEGO parts, and no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi enabled

16. Saniya reminds Siya to verify the
alignment of the Composter before
running Nitro to push the Truck and
retrieve the Friendly Packaging. Blake
(the long-haired blonde boy, one of
the star programmers on the team)
looks on to supervise.

17. A wonderful outcome of this
tremendous program—friendship and
affinity. Emily and Caroline strike a
pose for the camera, fully confident
they’ll grow to be extraordinary
leaders, and lifelong friends!

18. A favorite pose of the team is to look in different directions and confuse the
photographers!

19. Coach Brady looks on as Aryaman adjusts the Gyro Proportional Turn to slow down a little
more as it nears the target direction—to improve Nitro’s accuracy of course!

20. An important FLL Core
Value is Gracious
Professionalism, which
means sharing with other
Teams, even if they are
the competition! Saniya
tells them how its done!

21. Before each robot run, the team must verify the missions are set correctly, and Nitro gets its light
sensors calibrated to the room’s light conditions

22. FLL Competitions bring volunteers with inspiring backgrounds. Here, a NASA
engineer gives the countdown before the 2.5 minute autonomous run.

23. The team created this resource to visualize and design Nitro’s high-scoring run on the Trash
Trek mat. Each mission has different points, and the more Nitro gets, the higher he rises on the
leaderboard!

24. INSPIRED?
• Help us out
• Pass it on
• Have a young ‘un? Look for or start a team! The FIRST programs our
exceptional!
• Contact Brady if you have any further questions!