-last edited on Jun 29, 2018 20:38:00 GMT by eagleeyedan
Post by eagleeyedan on Jun 29, 2018 20:37:01 GMT
n the old LMB's I was interviewed in the first double interview along with Daler99 for our experience in the FIRST LEGO Leauge robotics program. I was in the program from 2007-2009 and have volunteered as a judge and mentor for 7 years since and counting. In my home state, we are known as the FIRST family due to our longstanding involvement. We no longer coach but we still judge and coordinate tournaments! These were the tips I had come up with for teams, perhaps they will be useful yet today if any FLL'ers find their way over
Tip #1: Research project themes before the season starts. You know the challenge and the basic idea of what you will have to do based on previous years so I'd research problems and solutions to various natural disasters.
Tip #2: Be serious. Don't go into it thinking it's all fun because it's all fun work. If you want to do well, you can't be off-topic, goofy, and wild during meetings or not much will get done. It's fine to have a wild and goofy project, that's perfectly legal and leads into my next tip...
Tip #3: Think outside the box. When approaching the problem, robot or project, feel free to put your own twist on things. The team that took champions in our state during the transportation year had a project trying to stop the transportation of germs. Totally out of the box. Another year, we had to push a car but the rubber tires made this really hard so, we flipped the car upside down and pushed it on the roof. Nothing in the rules against it so it was legal!
Tip #4: Have a good image. Uniforms are a great way to do this. Also, have a good pit display. If you impress the judges with a great pit display, they will be more likely to nominate you. Things that move, light up, and are interactive are always winners. We had a banner that floated on balloons for a couple years. Project boards with quizzes are great too.
You also must be energetic and be able to show the judges that not only are you excited about your project but that you (the team) did the work. If anyone of your members can't explain something, they might think coaches did the work. One way to divert this is if you don't know something, not to lie about it but say, "I'd love to tell you about this but so and so can tell you more" and then have the judge continue with that member. It also helps if you have about 3 people talking to the judge. That way they see that you work as a team, you know the material, and experts can really clarify judges questions.
Tip #5: Be "gracious professionals". You have to help/impress other teams as well as judges. If a team needs help programming, or building an attachment, or needs someone to snap a photo help them. Also, picking up trash is always a good idea. At the very least keep your area clean but if you can, send out a trash patrol every hour or so to pick up the candy wrappers that always fill the floors. (being a volunteer myself I can tell you that we love it when teams do that)
Tip #6: Bring a chair or two. It's no fun if you have to stand all day so bring a couple folding chairs to set up in a corner for your team.
Tip #7: Rehearse your presentation. I would hope that would be obvious but to some teams, it isn't so I had to mention it.
Tip #8: If you are nominated to attend state or are on the waiting list, DO NOT TAKE APART YOUR ROBOT!!! Bad idea. Even if you are just on the waiting list, teams drop out and I've seen so many teams that were on the list who took it apart and suddenly were invited. It's devastating.
Tip #9: Backup your code. We made the mistake of storing all our code on a flash drive which got dropped in the parking lot outside the competition building. It was returned a year later but it was waaaay too late.
Tip #10: Comment in your code. If you don't comment in your code, troubleshooting is a lot harder. Also, judges will love it. Few teams comment so those who do are almost always nominated for programming.
Tip #11: Engage all members of the team in all areas. What company survives when everyone is so focused on their area that they don't communicate with the rest of the team and what customer will buy a product when everyone they talk to is not at least knowledgeable in the product? When talking to judges, if they find the kids don't know the material, they usually assume the parents did the work and you will be disqualified from any awards if this is the case.
Tip #12: Read the coaches handbook to the whole team. This way they know what you expect of them and what the judges are looking for.
Tip #13: Study the rubrics and write your presentation to match. If all the judges have to do is go down the list, in order, and check off the rubric, it makes life a ton easier for them and you will get higher scores if you use the keywords in the rubric.
Tip #14: Talk to experts! Experts know what they are talking about, and by talking to them, you can too! The judges will be impressed if, by talking to experts, you become one yourself. Since FIRST's mission is to inspire youth to learn, if you demonstrate that you have learned, you have fulfilled their mission.
For instance, during the summer, our team met with some education experts, each with a specialty such a special needs, adult education, principles, teachers, and we are still interviewing more from national programs like PLTW. Once you have your project selected, work closely with one of your experts, or even a new one, to really make it feasible.
Tip #15: Have a creative, but feasibly implementable project! This one is a grey area, but if your idea is implementable, it will really impress the judges, and possibly even the world. One year my team created a new car bumper that combined two existing technologies that had not been put together before but would cut costs from over $1000 to $50 for small accidents. Insurance companies were begging us to pursue it. Another year we invented a new latch for CPM machines. A CPM distributor begged us to patent it and even said they'd help pay for the patent. Sure, a crazy project about a robot who can do everything is fun, but kind of cliche. Talking to experts is another way to get ideas for what the field you are researching needs, and you as creative youth, often will create the solution that an adult would never even think of. FLL teams hold hundreds of patents in the US now and there's nothing stopping your team from adding to that number!
Tip #16: Your project doesn't have to be new technology! I can't stress that enough. In #15 I mentioned how we combined existing technologies in new ways. This will be proof that your idea is totally legitimate and wow the judges. Just make sure those technologies are compatible. This is really what innovation is all about. Seeing something everyone sees, but seeing it how no-one else has seen it before and kids are great at that.
Tip #17: Make sure your project isn't already out there. Google your idea before you go too far. We had one year where we came up with tons of amazing ideas, only to find out our top 6 were already out there. A team at the competition had one of them, and we pointed it out to them. Turned out they never even thought to check if it was in existence already, but the judges did and it looks suspicious when that happens. It's also lazy if you don't make sure your idea is new. Still, keep in mind #16 though. The technology can exist and not be currently used in the manner you are suggesting, but if it already is, then find a new project or find some way to twist/improve it to make it better.
Tip #18: I earlier mentioned that you should know about all aspects of your team, robot, programming, and project. This does in no way mean you have to be an expert in each, but every member should be an expert in one area at east. I specialized in robot attachments, project research, and robot mission strategy.
Also, make sure there is not just one expert in each area, but have some crossover. There were others who specialized in the same areas, but none with those exact three. There should also be some crossover between subteams of the team. You can't have three people who know everything about the project, community outreach, and fundraising, but not one of them is an expert in the robot. This makes the team appear divided. Make sure the expertise is spread out.
Tip #19: Have subteams. Everyone should have an assigned subteam or more. Better if you are a part of several, and a leader of one. For instance, I was the Robot Strategy leader but participated in the attachments and research subteams. This spreads out the work and makes sure the works gets done.
Tip #20: There will always be natural leaders, kids who are too quiet to show their natural leadership, and kids who are super smart but harder workers than leaders. make sure the kids who are natural leaders don't overpower the others. Perhaps you may need to assign the potential natural leaders a position to let them shine. That was me on the team. I wasn't going to volunteer for a leadership position but knew I'd be great at it. My coach saw this and gave me a position in which I could utilize my potential, thus giving me lifelong confidence. I used to be extremely quiet. not shy, quiet and this single move by my coach gave me confidence and will affect my life and success forever. Not kidding at all. FIRST has that impact on people, I know firsthand and have seen it in others so many times, it's overwhelming.
Tip #21: Have easily interchangeable attachments. Some teams like to build a rigid body with everything all there but find themselves limited because there are only so many ports. We used the old magnetic couplers LEGO used to produce, though I haven't seen them in any sets for a super long times so they're probably rare. The faster you can change them, the better; the course is timed remember. Creating a modular system is the best way to do this. if the pegs plug into the same holes for every attachment, the inevitable stage fright will have a lessened effect.
Tip #22: Practice your attachment swapping over and over and over again. A good fighter knows that he can be really strong, but if he doesn't practice, his swings will be slower and he will lose the fight.
Tip #23: have a storage container you bring with to house your attachments at the tournament table. Ours is as simple as a box top with shoelaces tied to it. the laces go over the wearer's neck and the box is then at arms height on their belly.
Tip #24: if you have sensors on your attachments, make sure the wiring is easy to access and quick to plug in. You don't want to have to untangle the wires on your robot's arm to plug in a new one.
Tip #25: Make sure the people chosen to run the robot work well as a team and can all but read each other's minds through practice. This way, if the robot is running behind and the driver needs to grab it from a crash, the other knows to skip the next mission and have the appropriate attachment prepared (as an example situation)
Tip #26: if you only have 15 seconds left and the robot crashes, it's not really worth it to touch it. Just tell the ref you are done, and he should turn it off to prevent field or robot damage without penalty.
Hopefully those will be helpful to someone still! Cheers
I'm not in FLL, and I don't think I can participate in FLL at this point in my life, but this was an interesting read. I'll be doing something like this for future robotics projects, so this was very helpful. I'll keep these tips in mind.
Hey, a fellow FIRST participant! I did three years on a FTC team!
Ive been doing FLL for 2 years, and am just starting Into Orbit
It's kinda neat how they've been theming all the games together. Before it was just FLL and FLL jr that were themed together but this year FLL jr, FLL, FTC, and FRC are all space themed! They did that before with Recycle Rush and Trash Trek the same year. Wonder if it's going to be a thing going forward.
Ive been doing FLL for 2 years, and am just starting Into Orbit
It's kinda neat how they've been theming all the games together. Before it was just FLL and FLL jr that were themed together but this year FLL jr, FLL, FTC, and FRC are all space themed! They did that before with Recycle Rush and Trash Trek the same year. Wonder if it's going to be a thing going forward.
It's kinda neat how they've been theming all the games together. Before it was just FLL and FLL jr that were themed together but this year FLL jr, FLL, FTC, and FRC are all space themed! They did that before with Recycle Rush and Trash Trek the same year. Wonder if it's going to be a thing going forward.
Always glad to see other FIRSTers! 
