I too would love it if the teams could see the other projects. I think it would really spur their creativity and set a mark for excellence for the next year. Re the introductions: we didn't get a checkmark for that even though our team did introduce themselves (team, school, town), which made me wonder: are individual teammember introductions desired? Kathy Wakeman Mindstorm Marauders On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 9:35 AM, Linda Bangert <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi All, > > I would like to add the thanks of Team WNANF (We Need A Name Fast) to the > others who have chimed in about the Newport News tournament. We are a > rookie team, and had a few surprises in how things were done, but the > scheduling went very smoothly, the rooms were easy to find and centrally > located, and folks were gracious and professional. Well done! > > I'll pass along the things that surprised us, in the hope it can help > others. I hope I'm not spilling any secrets. > > One of the things our team got feedback on the sheets as a weakness was "No > introductions to judges." Although our team handed the judge the Team > Information sheet, no one told us that it was standard procedure to > introduce themselves as well. Talking to an experienced coach friend, he > said they forgot to tell this year's team to do that, even though they had > remembered to tell their previous teams. > > The team was also surprised in the robot judging to be asked to run the > robot while they answered questions. Even though this is a middle school > team, several members are shy, and had a hard time listening to and coming > up with coherent answers to the judges' questions while they were also > trying to run the robot - definitely something we need to practice. > > After reading the comments here last week (at 10:30 p.m. the night before > our tournament) about needing to bring a "code book" with photos of the > robot with all the attachments and printouts of the programs, I was in a > panic, particularly since my printer was out of ink. We decided to just > take our robot and laptop to show the programs. Although bringing our robot > to the robot judging may seem obvious, it wasn't to this rookie coach, > particularly after reading about needing to bring photos. Finally, even > though some team members said, "We can show you in our program what we did," > the judges didn't want to look at their programs at all. (Glad I didn't go > on a midnight expedition for printer ink!) > > As a final suggestion, I would have liked to have the team see the other > teams' presentations, in order get ideas on what worked and what didn't. > This is allowed (with students as young as 3rd grade) in Odyssey of the > Mind, and the kids learn a lot from each other. The format is very much the > same - using classrooms for the presentations. When the room is full, > that's it, so teams would have to be judicious about sending only a couple > of members to not take up too much space. > > Perhaps a "What to Expect" few paragraphs would be helpful, either posted > on the VA/DC website or e-mailed to the coaches when they register for a > tournament. This should help new coaches, and also serve as a checklist for > the experienced coaches. To put everything in perspective, none of these > things hurt us much, as we did qualify for State, but it was stressful for > the team members. Even so, they had a great time. Thanks again! > > Linda Bangert > Coach for Team WNANF > Poquoson Middle School > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave > the list". > > -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ADMIN-L. Visit > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html to subscribe. > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ADMIN-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html to subscribe.