FLL Fairmont Team Aid
Date: September 20, 2013
Time: 3:00 - 5:30 P.M.
# of Members: 7
On September 20, 2013, our 2013-2014 FLL team, Route 66, aided the rookie Fairmont FLL team. As an experienced team, Route 66 knows that being a rookie team is both stressful and exciting.
Since one of our members attended Fairmont, we decided to help with their enterprise in forming a new team. Seven members of the Fairmont team and their coach attended to get some info and knowhow. The kids and the coach at the aiding event were interested in all the tips that we had to offer. We taught the team some basic programming, questions to expect from the judges, behavior and knowledge the judges expect from the team, the steps to making a good research solution, what to expect with a core values activity, how to make a good strategy, and an introduction to PID (proportional integral derivative, a method for following lines). After our lessons, the rookie team demonstrated their robot. We gave them feedback on what they could do to make it better, including how to brace the robot more securely. Because one of Route 66’s mentors was the captain of a World Championship team, the coach of the Fairmont team pulled him over and asked him for one-on-one advice to help get the team to a high level competition. They discussed how the boards should look and other useful info to help the fledgling team.
After the session, the Fairmont team members were excited and couldn’t wait to test their new knowledge about research, robot building, programming, core values and judging. Although everything seemed perfect, what we didn’t realize at the time was that we didn’t explain why the issues we discussed were important. If we do an another aiding session, we plan to explain the significance of the information we discuss.
Time: 3:00 - 5:30 P.M.
# of Members: 7
On September 20, 2013, our 2013-2014 FLL team, Route 66, aided the rookie Fairmont FLL team. As an experienced team, Route 66 knows that being a rookie team is both stressful and exciting.
Since one of our members attended Fairmont, we decided to help with their enterprise in forming a new team. Seven members of the Fairmont team and their coach attended to get some info and knowhow. The kids and the coach at the aiding event were interested in all the tips that we had to offer. We taught the team some basic programming, questions to expect from the judges, behavior and knowledge the judges expect from the team, the steps to making a good research solution, what to expect with a core values activity, how to make a good strategy, and an introduction to PID (proportional integral derivative, a method for following lines). After our lessons, the rookie team demonstrated their robot. We gave them feedback on what they could do to make it better, including how to brace the robot more securely. Because one of Route 66’s mentors was the captain of a World Championship team, the coach of the Fairmont team pulled him over and asked him for one-on-one advice to help get the team to a high level competition. They discussed how the boards should look and other useful info to help the fledgling team.
After the session, the Fairmont team members were excited and couldn’t wait to test their new knowledge about research, robot building, programming, core values and judging. Although everything seemed perfect, what we didn’t realize at the time was that we didn’t explain why the issues we discussed were important. If we do an another aiding session, we plan to explain the significance of the information we discuss.
Mentoring WHS FLL Teams
Date: 2011-2014
FLL Teams:
267 (2011-2012),
116 & 10034 (2012-2013),
66 & 12474 (2013-2014)
Our school’s robotics club consists of two FLL teams, one FTC team, and one VEX team. As such, we had the opportunity of mentoring our two FLL teams. One was a completely new team that consisted of only new members while the other was a senior team. As mentors, we divided ourselves so some of us were in charge of the new team while others were in charge of the other team.
In the beginning of FLL’s competition season, we started from scratch and taught the new team about FIRST, Gracious Professionalism, building, programming, research, and the core values of FLL. We also aided the senior team members by giving them our input on the new season’s game and theme. Throughout the season, we attended some of their meetings and gave them tips and input on various aspects of their work like their robot structure, project idea, and game tactics. When they were wrapped up with all their work, we hosted a “mock competition” for the teams. On separate meeting days, the two teams gave us their robots and project presentations like in real competitions. To simulate the feeling of a real competition even further, we acted as judges and asked them questions about their presentations and gave them scores based on authentic FLL rubrics. After the mock competition, we debriefed them about their work and gave them final tips.
After their Qualifiers, we hosted another meeting for debriefing and discussed the results of their competition. Some of us had gone with them to Qualifiers and were able to see them compete. We were thus able to provide them with our thoughts on their performance and we spent the meeting discussing their strengths and weaknesses that we saw. We gave them more advice on their robot designs as well as their projects so they were able to improve before Regionals.
Since most of our team consists of FLL alumnus, we were able to pass down our knowledge to our mentees and inspire them in their works. Through this mentorship, we were able to become closer as friends as we were able to joke around while working together during the season.
FLL Teams:
267 (2011-2012),
116 & 10034 (2012-2013),
66 & 12474 (2013-2014)
Our school’s robotics club consists of two FLL teams, one FTC team, and one VEX team. As such, we had the opportunity of mentoring our two FLL teams. One was a completely new team that consisted of only new members while the other was a senior team. As mentors, we divided ourselves so some of us were in charge of the new team while others were in charge of the other team.
In the beginning of FLL’s competition season, we started from scratch and taught the new team about FIRST, Gracious Professionalism, building, programming, research, and the core values of FLL. We also aided the senior team members by giving them our input on the new season’s game and theme. Throughout the season, we attended some of their meetings and gave them tips and input on various aspects of their work like their robot structure, project idea, and game tactics. When they were wrapped up with all their work, we hosted a “mock competition” for the teams. On separate meeting days, the two teams gave us their robots and project presentations like in real competitions. To simulate the feeling of a real competition even further, we acted as judges and asked them questions about their presentations and gave them scores based on authentic FLL rubrics. After the mock competition, we debriefed them about their work and gave them final tips.
After their Qualifiers, we hosted another meeting for debriefing and discussed the results of their competition. Some of us had gone with them to Qualifiers and were able to see them compete. We were thus able to provide them with our thoughts on their performance and we spent the meeting discussing their strengths and weaknesses that we saw. We gave them more advice on their robot designs as well as their projects so they were able to improve before Regionals.
Since most of our team consists of FLL alumnus, we were able to pass down our knowledge to our mentees and inspire them in their works. Through this mentorship, we were able to become closer as friends as we were able to joke around while working together during the season.