October 11, 2016

Michigan FIRST LEGO League Grants Available! (MI FLL Team Blast 2016.08)

Michigan FIRST LEGO League Grants Available!  (MI FLL Team Blast 2016.08)

There are three different grant opportunities for 2016 Michigan FIRST LEGO League teams. 

·         Michigan Department of Education (State Grant) 
·         Ford Motor Company Employee Mentored Team Grant
·         General Motors (GM) Rookie Elementary School Team Grant

Please read below for more details and links to applications.


Michigan Department of Education (State Grant) – OPEN! -  Closes November 7, 2016
All teams affiliated with publicly funded schools/charters/academies may apply for this grant.  The grant deadline is November 7, 2016.  Teams must be registered for the season before November 7 in order to be considered for the MDE State FLL grant.  Application is made by the school district's Level 5 employee (usually someone in finance) via the MEGS+ system.  A note has been e-blasted from the MDE to schools/districts about this grant. Note that this grant is administered by the MDE, not FIRST or FIRST in Michigan.

IMPORTANT! Teams applying for the MDE State grant MUST state their team affiliation as "School" and select their school name from the drop down list on their Team Profile on the Team Registration System (accessed via FIRST Account).

For step-by-step information on this grant and the application requirements, as well as registering a team for the season, please visit the 2016-2017 Step-by-Step Guide to Team Registration and Grants.

A school district fills out ONE SINGLE application for all of the FIRST teams in the district (FRC, FTC, FLL, FLL Jr). Each team will have its own page under the district's single application. The spending plan which must be attached is a cumulative one encompassing all of the teams in the district. Make sure your district knows about your team!

Governor Snyder, our "state grant champion" leaves in a year.  Take advantage of all these grants while you can.  Remember, with FIRST LEGO League, you only buy the robot kit in your first year then reuse it year after year.

Keep in mind that Michigan has a different Progression of Program than what is listed on the FIRST website:
High School                     FRC exclusively
Middle School                  FTC exclusively
Late Elementary               FLL exclusively
Early Elementary             FLL Jr. exclusively (Grades K-3)
Make sure you are aligned!

The Request for Proposal (RFP), FAQs, sample spending plans, etc. are all available at http://www.techplan.org/rdi/. Please review this information.

Ford Motor Company Employee Mentored Team Grant – OPEN!
FIRST® teams (FLL Jr. /FLL/FTC/FRC) with a Ford employee mentor can apply for Ford team grants at ford.avature.net/STEM.  The grant amount for FLL teams that meet the criteria is $200.  Please refer to the site for details.  

To be eligible, teams must have a Ford employee as an active mentor.  Only one team grant is available for each team.  The application must be made by a non-Ford employee requester.  The grant application is a two-step process.

STEP 1: The requester (non-Ford employee) should register and provide preliminary data related to the request. Once Ford Motor Company reviews this information, and determines the request meets selection criteria, the submitter is invited to STEP 2.

STEP 2: The full team grant application is submitted.

Note that the "Remit to" information is captured under the "FIRST School" name/address areas of the form. If the team's fiscal partner is not the school, please use the fiscal partner's information in these input areas.  The school name/affiliated org. should be included in the "Affiliation" area. FIRST in Michigan prefers that disbursement of granted funds is not to an individual. This could result in the grant being considered taxable income to the person receiving the funds which is not the sponsor's intent.

General Motors (GM) Rookie Elementary School Team Grant – OPEN!
This grant is available to Michigan, Rookie, Elementary School, FIRST LEGO League teams.

This grant is a reimbursement grant.  You must have registered and paid for the 2016 season, and purchased your robot and field setup kits, before applying.  Upon approval of your grant application, the team will receive a check for $300 from FIRST in Michigan.

This grant is made possible through a generous donation from General Motors.

Grant parameters and the application may be found here:  https://goo.gl/forms/RdfTU0bw1jXaHXc22.

Pamela Williamson
Michigan FIRST LEGO League Partner

michiganfll@gmail.com