Re: [VADCFLL-L] A special offer to your team - a free 2 ho
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]> 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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