Stuart,

One year, our FLL team had too many students for one team, so we registered
as two teams, and went to the tournament as two separate teams.

However, we practiced and did everything *together* during the season,
including working together on everything, sharing ideas, and helping each
other learn.

At the tournament, the kids did have two robots, and they did two different
skits, but we all felt like one team, and we all celebrated the season
together.

Neither of our two teams of kids won any awards, but they had a great time,
and they learned a lot, together.

It would be good experience for the group which is further along, to help
the other group... helping other teams is always a good idea.

Perhaps something like this could work for your students?

I hope you and your team do attend a tournament!  :-)

PS #1 - Regarding RoboLab: while it is more advanced than RIS (I am told), I
also have heard that RIS is simpler and easier to learn than RoboLab...
thus, we have always used RIS when we programmed our RCX FLL robots...
keeping it simple helps a lot.

PS #2 - Our kids usually don't have any robot missions working until the
practice before the tournament, so please believe me, your team is not
alone.  :-)

Good Luck!
Kevin

Kevin Hines
FLL Coach
[log in to unmask]
www.RoanokeRobotics.org



-----Original Message-----
From: First Lego League Discussion
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Stuart Roll
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 1:24 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VADCFLL-L] Partial tournament participation?


One of the schools I coach at has multiple teams.  An additional team
was added well after the season started, has rookie coaches and (mostly)
kids, was "stuck" with the old RCX kit, had troubles with RoboLab and
finding all the old sensors, didn't know what they needed to know but
didn't, etc., etc., etc.

The kids and coaches of that team are very discouraged about this year's
tournament w.r.t. the public robotics table competition.  They are
upbeat about doing robotics at school this next off-season and
participating properly in next year's FLL tournaments but they really
won't have anything to show off and be proud of at the robot
competition. (I know - we normally suggest they just do a couple of
missions and be proud of that but in this particular circumstance they
probably won't be able to do even that.)

They are willing, I think, to come to the tournament and participate in
the judged events (even showing their robot to the Robot Design judges)
if they can simply skip the table competition.  If that is not
permitted, they will probably choose to withdraw completely and simply
attend it to observe and cheer on others.

Does anybody know if this kind of partial participation would be
allowed?  They are scheduled for one of the Ashburn tournaments.

Stuart

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