Hello Troops,

I've been off the grid for one week, buried in First Lego League stuff. The FLL competition was held on Saturday in Salt Lake City. My little team of hyperenergetic 4th grade boys took 9th place out of 23 teams. Not bad for a rookie team and a wet behind the ears coach. The boys came up with Chaotic Crashers as the team's name. Chaos because that's what our meetings were like at and Crashers because that's what our robot did best! Many thanks to James Lakko and his mom for their awesome help in getting us ready. James was our Lego "Super Coach" and a member of our Farpoint Voyager club. James saved our bacon on the tournament table. I also want to thank two other Voyagers, Affan and Carter, for their help. It made a difference.

By far we had the simplest robot of the pack, but sometimes simple is best. The more complicated the robot, the more there is to break.

In other news, Farpoint Voyagers, watch your emails this week for news on this school year's Long Duration mission starting in February.

Mr. Williamson

News from Our Friends at Dreamflight Adventures in Pennsylvania. Two New Simulators to Launch This Month.

Countdown to Launch

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Admiral Starblayze

The days you’ve all been waiting for are about to arrive. Today we’re delighted to announce not one, but two launch dates for our new simulators. The IKS Dreamcatcher (pictured above) at Penn Hills Elementary School will launch on Wednesday, January 28, and the IKS Buccaneerat Stewart Elementary will launch on Tuesday, January 27.

Soon the students at these two schools will be blasting off on the adventure of a lifetime! Stay tuned for more details about these exciting launches as they unfold.

Get to know the latest Flight Directors of the IKS Dreamcatcher

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Admiral Starblayze

We missed a couple of rascals in our recent Flight Director spotlight, but they couldn’t hide forever. Here’s the low-down on two more of our intrepid Flight Directors for the IKS Dreamcatcher.

Jeremy Rega, IKS Dreamcatcher at Penn Hills Elementary

Alias: Admiral Diamondstone

Jeremy Rega has been with the Penn Hills Schools for 17 years—10 years of that as a classroom teacher (4^th grade) and the past 7 years as a Head Teacher/Data Coach at the elementary level. His job involves helping teachers and students use classroom and testing data to drive and improve instruction and learning.

Jeremy is excited to bring his students into the IKS Dreamcatcher to experience and interact with both engaging missions and an impressive classroom simulator. He is very excited to be a part of the Penn Hills team and can’t wait to get started bringing this experience to more students moving forward.

Jeff DerVanik, IKS Dreamcatcher at Penn Hills Elementary

Alias: Admiral Osbourne Smith

Jeff DerVanik is a Flight Director of the IKS Dreamcatcher at Penn Hills Elementary School. Jeff has worked in education since 1998, and has been with Penn Hills for the past 16 years. In his time with Penn Hills, Jeff has taught K-5 Health and Physical Education and 6-12 Alternative Education Physical Education, was an assistant coach for the varsity baseball team, and has been a Head Teacher / Data Coach for the past 10 years except for a half of a year when he served as the 5^th & 6^th grade Associate Principal. Since Jeff started in Penn Hills, he has worked in 10 different buildings.

Jeff is very excited about this new expedition as a Flight Director and can’t wait to see what it leads to.

The Imaginarium