We are not a school team, but we did start trying to form our team in the spring also.  We met a few times over the summer, and it was helpful to have that beginning.  We plan to now meet throughout the year, maybe once a month or more, so the kids can have an opportunity to explore and experiment with programming in ways they did not have time to do during the season.  I was looking at the techbrick site and noticed their tournament is not until Jan 31!  They are in MD, but wow, that is a LOT more time to work on the missions and project.
 
Sonya in Harrisonburg

On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 11:34 AM, Michael Blanpied <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Lisa,

I'll be curious too. I assume that FLL regionals and state tournaments are in the fall to allow the international tournament to fall within the same school year, or to not conflict with Odyssey of the Mind and other such things in the spring, but that's just a guess.

The timing does create a challenge for school teams. My first two years I coached an elementary school team. The school would send announcements about FLL in the introductory package, which families would receive around Labor Day. By the time forms were returned, teams formed, and a first meeting scheduled, we were into late September with only about 6-7 weeks left. I pleaded for the school to solicit interest and form teams in the spring, so that we could meet a bit over the summer to get to know each other and begin work on background skills (robot building, programming) and begin to explore the theme topic in a general way, but no dice.

Perhaps a compromise would be to move the fall tournaments a couple of weeks later, and shift States to after the holiday, but who knows.

Mike


Hello,

    I have a question about the timing of our tournaments.  Why do we have our tournaments during the busiest time of the year November and December?  There must be a reason and I just don't know.   It would seem to make more sense to have them later after we have had time to get situated in the school year and not during the holiday season.  I was thinking March and April.

Just Wondering,
Fuqua Bot Boys
Formerly X-treme Lego Bots
Formerly Fuqua 4-H Robotics

Lisa

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