VADCFLL-L Archives

First Lego League in Virginia and DC

VADCFLL-L@LISTSERV.JMU.EDU

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
"Donna L. Cornwell" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Date:
Mon, 5 Dec 2011 18:12:35 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (55 lines)
  I like to use the off-season to teach skills.  One year my team really 
wanted to finish and perfect missions that they had worked on for the
tournament. They enjoyed doing that, so they just worked through the
missions. The next year, they were burned out on the missions after the
tournament, so I gave them mini-missions to solve. We were working
towards having soccer playing robots. I started with small tasks: kick
a ball into a goal, then use the light sensor to follow a line to a
goal, etc.: Our post-season came to an end before we got farther.

I felt that my team needed work on discipline and skills, so I taught
them again how to calculate the rotations to go a certain distance and
for various turns ( 45 degree, 90 degree). I then gave them robot
specifications and gave them a mission to solve and program. I built
the robot myself outside of meetings. They were not allowed to see
"MysteryBot" until they had written and shown me their programs. I did
this with them early in the season before I would let them design and
build their robot and tackle the food factor missions. I think it would
make a good off-season activity.

Another idea I had was to have everyone purchase a book and work through
the activities in the book. My current favorite is Winning Designs for
Lego Mindstorms NXT. With a beginner team, I might prefer The
Unofficial Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0.

Donna Cornwell
[log in to unmask]


On 12/5/2011 5:26 PM, Mary Kendrick wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> Well, brand new coach here - we made it to our first tournament, using it as a
> learning experience for the years to come. We did fairly well and the team will
> continue to meet throughout the rest of the school year.
>
> Ideas for goals and focus of these meetings is to redesign our robot and work
> on programming the robot to accomplish all missions in Food Factor.
>
> So the question is, how do you vetern coaches run the off-season meetings?
> Do you meet off-season, making it a school-year club? Any ideas or
> suggestions on how best to use this more relaxed time is GREATLY appreciated!
>
> Thanks so much,
> Mary
> TechnoSharks
>
> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
>
> -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-ANNOUNCEMENTS-l.html to subscribe.
>

-- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".

-- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-ANNOUNCEMENTS-l.html to subscribe.

ATOM RSS1 RSS2