Narrative of Activities | Teams of Innovative Problem Solvers (TIPS)

Narrative
Past Activities
Jr. FLL is a team robotics competition for no more than 10 kids, in grades k-2, which was coached by Paul Fitzgerald in 2009. The team met bi-weekly, for 10 weeks, 4-10 hours a week, from August to November, in South Burlington, Vermont. This advances the exempt purpose because kids are instructed in leadership and management in order to direct themselves. The kids are also instructed in WeDo lego robot design, lego WeDo robot fabrication, programming lego robots, graphic design for video games, music composition for video games, programming for video games. Parents pay a participation fee is directly based on the costs of operating the program, such as registration fees, tournament fees, robot kits, software such as Anime Studio and Photoshop, computers and supplies for presentations and documentation and so on. Paul Fitzgerald volunteered to coach. The Schoolhouse donated space of the team to meet.

Odyssey of the Mind Division I is a creativity competition for no more than 7 kids, in grades 3-5 which was coached by Paul Fitzgerald from 2010-2012. The team met bi-weekly, for 10 weeks, 4-10 hours a week, from from December through March in South Burlington, Vermont to prepare for the Vermont State Competition. Parents pay a participation fee is directly based on the costs of operating the program, such as registration fees, tournament fees, supplies for the long-term project and so on. Paul Fitzgerald volunteered to coach.

Queen City Chess Club supports chess. Paul Fitzgerald held weekly drop-in practices for 1-2 hours, year-round, on Saturday mornings in South Burlington from 2009-2013. 100+ kids participated in the program during that time but not more than 20 could attend a particular session. The team also provided tournament support and coaching for the Fall Classic and Vermont State Scholastic Championships. This activity furthered the exempt purposes because kids were instruction in how to play chess and they were taught to collaborative solve chess puzzles and to discuss their games together to find the best moves. Paul Fitzgerald donated chess pieces and boards and volunteered to coach. Healthy Living Market donated space for the team to meet.

Math Club was for no more than 35 kids and supported both Perennial Math and Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools (MOEMS). Paul Fitzgerald coached the Math Club, which met for an hour monthly from November through March, in Shelburne, Vermont from 2013-2015. The math club furthered the exempt purposes because kids collaboratively discussed the solutions to math olympiads and received support in math problem solving. Parents paid a participation fee to offset the costs of registration and materials for the program. healthy Living Market and Endeavor School donated space for the team to meet. Paul Fitzgerald volunteered to coach.

Present Activities
FIRST FLL is a team robotics competition for no more than 10 kids, in grades 3-8, which is coached by Paul Fitzgerald. The team met bi-weekly, for 10 weeks, 4-10 hours a week, from August to November, in South Burlington, Vermont to prepare for the Vermont Regional Competition. This advances the exempt purpose because kids are instructed in leadership and management in order to direct themselves. The kids are also instructed in lego EV3/NXT robot design, lego robot fabrication, programming lego robots, graphic design for video games, music composition for video games, programming for video games. This is about 50% of the total time or about 80 hours. Parents pay a participation fee is directly based on the costs of operating the program, such as registration fees, tournament fees, robot kits, software such as Anime Studio and Photoshop, computers and supplies for presentations and documentation and so on. Paul Fitzgerald volunteered to coach and donated space for the team to meet.

FIRST FTC is a team robotics competition for no more than 10 kids, in grades 7-12 which is coached by Paul Fitzgerald. The team met for 40 hours from December through March in South Burlington, Vermont to prepare for the Vermont State Competition. This advances the exempt purpose because kids are instructed in leadership and management in order to direct themselves. The kids are also instructed in Tetrix robot design, Tetrix robot fabrication, programming Tetrix robots in C# through Android Studio for both teleop and autonomous operation. Parents pay a participation fee is directly based on the costs of operating the program. This is about 25% of the total time. Parents pay a participation fee is directly based on the costs of operating the program, such as registration fees, tournament fees, Tetrix robot kits, computers, tools, computers, supplies for presentations and documentation and so on. Paul Fitzgerald volunteered to coach and donated space for the team to meet.

Odyssey of the Mind Division II is a creativity competition for no more than 7 kids, in grades 6-8 which is coached by Paul Fitzgerald. The team met bi-weekly, for 10 weeks, 4-10 hours a week, from from December through March in South Burlington, Vermont to prepare for the Vermont State Competition. This is about 25% of the total time, or 40 hours. Parents pay a participation fee is directly based on the costs of operating the program, such as registration fees, tournament fees, supplies for the long-term project and so on. Paul Fitzgerald volunteered to coach and donated space for the team to meet.

Future Activities
Tips Inc. plans to offer 425 hours of services to further the exempt purposes of the program in the following ways.

Tips Inc. plans to sustain the current FLL team, previously described, and will shifter focus to grades 6-8. 80 hours of total time, which would be 19% of the total.

Tips Inc, plans to sustain the current DII Odyssey of the Mind team, which meets for 40 hours or 9% of the total.

TIPS Inc. plans to sustain the current FTC team as previously described. 60 hours of total time for 14% of the time.

Tips Inc. plans to start a second FLL team with a focus on grades, 3-5. This will bring 6 new kids into the program. 60 hours of total time, for 14% of the total.

Tips Inc. plans to restart the jr. FLL team, as previously described. This will bring 6 new kids into the program. 40 hours of time, 9% of the total time.

Tips Inc. plans to restart the Queen City Chess Club, as previous described. This will be for 45 hours of total time.

Tips Inc. plans to restart the Math Club, as previous described. This will be for 5 hours of total time, which is 1% of the total.

Tips Inc. plans to begin fundraising efforts to support the teams. Tips Inc. will seek corporate sponsors, grants and run internet campaigns such as gofundme or kickstarter. These efforts will be based in South Burlington, Vermont. This will advance our exempt purpose because it will enable Tips Inc. to raise funds to reduce participation fees in the program. This will be run by parent volunteers for 20 hours, which is 5% of the total time.

Publications
2015

http://www.otherpapersbvt.com/green-mountain-gears-win-global-innovation-award.html

http://www.otherpapersbvt.com/orchard-and-tuttle-win-vermont-odyssey-of-the-mind-tournaments.html

www.otherpapersbvt.com/big-wins-at-state-chess-championships.html

2014
http://www.otherpapersbvt.com/orchard-team-advances-to-om-world-finals.html

http://www.otherpapersbvt.com/gears-grab-design-award-at-regional-competition.html

http://www.otherpapersbvt.com/chess-champions-win-big.html

www.otherpapersbvt.com/mathletes-make-the-mark.html

2013
http://www.otherpapersbvt.com/mini-makers.html

http://www.otherpapersbvt.com/all-geared-up.html

www.otherpapersbvt.com/gears-grab-second-place.html

http://www.otherpapersbvt.com/rick-marcotte-central-captures-creativity-crown.htm