I think it would be awesome to be able to see some of what the judges
thought was excellent in the research category.  Although we saw other
teams' displays, we came away feeling we didn't know what others had done at
all, nor what we should strive for next year on the research project.
I like the idea of having the top couple of projects give an optional public
presentation of their presentations.  That would be really great to see,
just as we learn so much by seeing how other teams built and programmed
their robots.  I know that might be hard to arrange and coordinate though.

Sonya in Hbg


On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 1:19 PM, Leslie Eckmann <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> There is always 'dead time' at the end of the tournament while the
> judges confer prior to the awards ceremony. Many tournaments have
> entertainment such as crab soccer or music/dancing while the teams wait
> for the Awards Presentations. That might be a good time to have teams do
> a brief presentation to the spectators and other teams about their
> research projects. The 'skits' have to be less than 5 minutes each.
> Maybe the judges could request that the top 4 or 5 from each division
> present their research or maybe they could request teams to volunteer to
> present at the end of the day. It seems like there should be a way to
> share a few teams' work with others.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: First Lego League Discussion
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Blanpied
> Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 1:06 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] It's all about the robot
>
>  There have been some great responses to George's note about the
> apparent robo-centric emphasis. I agree that this is more illusion
> than fact, and applaud the great work done by the project and
> teamwork judges and by the tournament officials who have the hard job
> of selecting among many deserving teams to win awards and advance to
> State.
>
> I do think this conversation illustrates a downside of having the
> project get such limited visibility at the tournament. The project
> presentation is done behind closed doors, with only coaches and a
> camera to witness. Unless a team brings a display of some sort to the
> tournament, and unless other teams find the time to look at said
> display, there's little opportunity to share results amidst all the
> excited rushing about. We've been to two regional tournaments and
> came away with scant insight into what any other teams had done for
> their projects, and no sense that anyone other than two judges
> learned what our team had done. Although early in the season the kids
> are  reluctant to spend time on the research instead of the robot, by
> the time they create their presentation they're jazzed about it, so
> it's a bit of a shame not to have that enthusiasm compete at least a
> bit with the roar of the robots.
>
> At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'll maintain that it's
> worthwhile to search for more ways to celebrate the projects, for
> example by adding a celebratory element to the closing ceremony above
> and beyond presenting awards. Even a one--minute synopsis of each
> winning project, delivered by the announcer or a team member, might
> be nice. It's been noted that everyone is tired at the end of the
> day, and understandably loath to add more time to the closing
> ceremony. But if there are tournaments that add more project-focused
> material to the closing, I'd be curious to learn what was done and
> how it went over.
>
> Cheers,
> Mike
>
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