Well said Mike. However, I would mention one exception. If I know a rookie
team or rookie coach, or even a newer coach whose team is struggling, I will
give some very detailed advice to help them get a few successful missions
going. The kids need a little bit of success to hang their hat on when they
get to a tournament.
_____
From: First Lego League in Virginia and DC
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Blanpied
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] A special offer to your team - a free 2 hour FLL
robot design / programming clinic at your place between Friday, 10/16 to
Sundays 11/01
Lisa and Jin,
I believe that Jin is collecting and distributing information on general
robot design and programming principals, and examples from prior seasons.
Most of this information is already available online, on many team web
sites, Youtube, etc., and many teams already take advantage of those
resources. I don't believe Jin is including information specifically about
the Transportation challenge, or about his team's work in the current
season, but he should confirm that.
Certainly none of us should be trading intel on strategies or solutions to
this year's Transportation missions (except for an occasional "is my kids'
solution legal?" question), and stuff like that should also be withheld from
the DVD and from training sessions. It is good for coaches to arm themselves
with a variety of building and programming skills, in order that they may
mentor and "ladder" the kids. But the solutions themselves--specific to how
to tackle the Transportation missions--should come entirely from the
creative minds of the children. When I am coaching I am very careful (and
this is the hardest part of coaching!) to NOT point the kids toward specific
solutions. My job is to mentor, not to guide, and it would be a hollow
victory if my team did well at tournament using solutions that had been
encouraged by me, or using skills beyond the ones they truly possess.
That being said, there's lots a coach can legitimately do. In the off-season
or pre-season I may show my team selected YouTube videos or web photos, to
illustrate techniques that they might find compelling. Over the summer or
early in the fall season I do take the time to hold brief training sessions
on generic topics, building a suite of skills that they may later draw on
when they are designing their robot or brainstorming solutions. For example,
I have held sessions on various ways that a robot may turn a corner, or how
does line-following work, or calculating distances using the wheel diameter,
or creating MyBlocks. But those are never done on the mission table, and any
connections made to the current missions come from their fertile brains, not
my aged one. It takes diligence and restraint for a coach to not cross that
line, and this is one of the hardest yet most important aspects to coaching
FLL, in my opinion.
Mike
Jin,
This is all great information that you are giving out but I think you
should be doing this during the "off-season". It is very disheartening as a
coach to see my team struggle to figure out a solution and the next week see
you offer that solution to whoever wants to take it.
Lisa Savage
Team 0697
From: First Lego League in Virginia and DC
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jin Ye
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:25 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] A special offer to your team - a free 2 hour FLL
robot design / programming clinic at your place between Friday, 10/16 to
Sundays 11/01
Oops.
My mailing (home) address is
Jin Ye
4520 Willet Drive, Annandale, VA 22003
--- On Wed, 10/21/09, Michael Blanpied <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Michael Blanpied <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] A special offer to your team - a free 2 hour FLL
robot design / programming clinic at your place between Friday, 10/16 to
Sundays 11/01
To: "Jin Ye" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 9:23 AM
Dear Jin,
Sounds like a great collection of information!
What is your mailing address?
Thanks,
Mike
Dear VADCFLLers:
I have a FLL INFO DVD for the attendees of the workshop, including in
1 - Robot designs examples and mission programs of the previous challenges
from the teams hat I have coached or mentored, and from the material
geruosly provided by "Configurators" - our Virginia's own BEST team ever in
my opinion.
2 - Other NXT robots building instruction which can be an excellent initial
study/example models for FLL robots, mostly from Internet
3 - Showcase FLL Challenge robot game performance video from some national
and international renown teams and from our award-winning Virginia teams
(Team Configurators, Team Tiki, Team Robot Activators, Team MaJJEECKS, Team
SMALL, Team Sea Monsters, and Team Mission Plausible)
4 - In-depth Discussions on various FLL Challenge related topics from
previous years FLL Forums
5 - A "Video on 2007 Rules" including many illustrations of the previous
missions.
I'm making it available to VADCFLL list. If you mail me a self-addressed and
pre-stamped enverlope, I'll do my best to send it to you ASAP - don't worry
about the cost of the DVD media and please please dont' send cash with the
enverlope.
Jin
--- On Wed, 10/21/09, Debbie Harris <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Debbie Harris <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] A special offer to your team - a free 2 hour FLL
robot design / programming clinic at your place between Friday, 10/16 to
Sundays 11/01
To: "Jin Ye" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 12:11 AM
I am in Botetourt County. Would you consider creating a video of one of
your workshops and making it available to teams not in your area?
On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Jin Ye <[log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]> >
wrote:
Dear FLLers:
I, a WOULD-BE of FLL "mentor-on-the-run" offer the NVA local teams a
"home-service-call": a free 2 hour FLL robot design / programming clinic at
your place between Friday, 10/16 to Sundays 11/01 (only evenings at the
weekends).
The "NVA local teams" is defined as
1 - Any teams based at home within 20-mile radius to zip-codes 20151 (my
work place in Chantilly) or 22003 (my home in Annandale)
2 - Any teams based at school within 35-mile radius to the same zip-codes
indicated above.
Of cause, As always I do this on totally volunteer-basis. Actually I am
quite busy at work to bring up an information database system to comply a
DOD security standard / requirement. Therefore, any personal time-off should
be planned ahead.
If your team wants me to come at weekday daytime, you have to let me know
ASAP.
What I will offer to you at the clinic -
Simply put, if currently your team expects to score 150 to 200 points at the
robot game, you may gain 50 to 100 more points if you implement the robot
design / programming tips that I will go through at the clinic. And the
teams will enjoy a lot more in this Challenge because they will feel that
THEY KNOW HOW TO MAKE THE ROBOT TO PLAY THE GAME!
Certainly the meeting will be interactive - I strongly encourage and welcome
your questions at the clinic.
I prefer to work with team's builders and programmers only (plus coaches /
mentors) so the meeting can be more effective.
I'll have some 2009 game mission execution demos used for explain the tips.
The original NXT mission script is from Liam Bishop and his teammates of FLL
2009 Team 8404. The robot that I'll use for the demo is from award-winning
FLL 2007 Team 945, built by Jason Ye and his teammates.
I cannot reveal the awesome secret of Team 8404's robot. But I can't help to
tell you the robot carries a "missile".
If you are interested in the offer, please reply back to me only (not to the
list). The deadline is Saturday, 10/17. If the number of teams that asked me
is more than that I can service during the period, I'll give priority to the
school teams first, and then the teams with the majority of the kids who
never did the FLL challengers before, and so on.
Jin Ye
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