I agree that the robot does get the most visibility at the tournament,
however, I will say that it is definitely not all about the robot.  We were
a first year team with very young 9 year olds, and we had an amazing
experience at our regional tournament this past weekend.  (Thank you so much
for everything by the way!!)  Our kids did very well.  They won the robot
design award for their age division, and tied for the best robot performance
award.  They were truly shocked and amazed and so excited to win two
awards!  However, although we did really well on the robot, apparently we
did not do as well in the other two categories, because we did not get
advanced to state, and we weren't even the alternate.  (I am definitely
not complaining!  They were just excited to do as well as they did!  And
congratulations to the teams who are going on to state, we are going to be
there to witness all the excitement!)  I am just saying this as an example
of, it's not all about the robot, and you can do really well on the robot,
but not be advanced.  It really is about all 4 parts.  We are a first team
year though, and we'll know more next year.

I also feel that FLL did a good job of emphasizing this from the start.  I
mean, everything I have gotten or read has said over and over again, how the
competition is evenly divided between the four components, and each is worth
25% (robot design, robot performance, teamwork, and research project).

I do feel though, that we needed some more information on how to better
prepare for the other parts.  The teamwork, for example, was 25% of our
score, but we didn't really know what to expect.  I won't go into details,
since some haven't had their tournament yet, but I do feel like it was a
short 5 minutes, and it is hard for the judges to determine how they worked
together as a team over the eight weeks in those 5 minutes.

Anyway, just sharing that it really is about the total score on all four
parts, and I do think it is good that this is emphasized, because it gives
kids a chance to see that there are many aspects and levels of working in
science and technology.  There is no one narrow path, but many.  It takes
all kind of jobs, all kinds of skills, and all kinds of people in those
fields.

Thank you again for the amazing experience we had at the JMU tournament, and
a super big congratulations to all the teams advancing to the state
competition.  I was so impressed at the level of enthusiasm by teams for all
the other teams.  Everyone was so supportive and cheering on other teams.
It was definitely not an atmosphere of "hey, we're the best" or "hey we're
gonna win and you're not", like you find at other team events.  It was
a great group of awesome kids!

Cheers,
Sonya in Harrisonburg

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