Re: [VADCFLL-L] food for thought about
scores
I agree that the feedback forms filled out by the judges are far
more useful than a numeric score. That being said, more feedback is
better than less, and sometimes our team has gotten a slip of paper
with just one or two words on it. I realize that the day is packed and
the judges have little time for filling out forms between judging
events, but if there's a way to make the feedback a little richer, it
would be great. Perhaps the pre-made forms could have more check-box
options? I'm not sure what else to suggest.
From the kids' perspective, though, the two things that matter in
terms of performance are their robot scores and whether they were
given awards. The feedback is useful and interesting, but at the end
of a tournament, everyone's pretty burned out and happy with season
and the fun day, no matter what the judges happened to conclude.
Mike
Feedback can be given to teams in the
form of comments and notes, and that's what it should be. We only use
the scores as a means of helping us with the difficult task of
choosing one of the many deserving teams to get an award. We look at
more than just the interview and the numbers. Teams are observed in
the pit and on the playing field as well.
You must keep in mind that the scores are
more of a sliding scale in several different categories, and that they
are subjective. Having the numbers means nothing. Also, you have no
idea what you are being compared to. It's not like the Miss USA
pageant where everything is done in front of the audience. In other
words, you may get upset if you have a 2 out of 4, when in fact that 2
may be very good and as high as any team scored in that category for
that event. Your team could very well have done an excellent job, but
another team has done an equally excellent job. Not winning does not
necessarily mean that your team needs to improve.
Have the kids focus on doing their best,
rather than worrying about being judged. Then they'll know whether
they did a great job without anyone needing to tell them.
Darlene Pantaleo
Judge Advisor
On Oct 15, 2008, at 6:56 AM, Robert
Haskins wrote:
If the FLL *truly* believes that scores
don't matter, then they should
eliminate scores altogether. If scores
don't matter, then why can't we
get rid of them? If you need scores, then
by definition, scores
matter! Without feedback (why the team
scored the way it did) and
transparency from the judging process, it
makes it much harder to
improve the team.
I think we're going to have to just agree
to disagree on this point,
but it doesn't make the issue (lack of
feedback from the judging
process) any less aggravating for me as a
coach.
On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 10:39 PM, Darlene
Pantaleo <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
This came from the judges' blog on the
FLL website. I hope that everyone
will take the time to read
this.
Why scores and rankings don't mean
much.
Some of the most common questions I hear
about FLL judging concern scores or
rankings of teams. Among the questions
are "What was my team's score?" and
"Where did my team rank among all
the teams?" I always respond to these
questions with "The policy of FLL is
to not release scores or rankings."
This in itself is not a very explanatory
answer, and usually leads to
follow-up questions and confusion about
the process in general.
<snip>
______________________________________________________________
To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS,
please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select
"Join or leave the list".
If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L
mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be
distributed - visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select
"Join or leave the list".
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________ To
UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, please visit
https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join
or leave the list". If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L
mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be
distributed - visit
https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select
"Join or leave the list".
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be distributed - visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".