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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