Speaking as an FLL coach for the past 6 seasons, it really depends on
the team. In new/young teams, it is often better to assign positions
at tournaments and who-does-what during practices. But I have found as
the kids get older, they can usually figure this out on their own. The
kids will self select into groups who are good at building,
programming and operating.

I will add that this is the first year I let all of the kids work on
the robot at one time. In past years, with large teams (> 4 members) I
would break practices down into research and robot pieces, putting 1/2
the kids into each group and then swapping. Allowing "everyone to work
on everything" resulted in very, very good table/robot performance,
but our research piece suffered as a result. But I think that the kids
enjoyed it more. So everything is a trade off, and you just have to
figure out how to manage the resources you have effectively.

On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 7:38 PM, Sonya Shaver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I would love to hear how other coaches approach the division of work during
> the FLL season, and how you decide who does what.  Especially when it comes
> to managing things like kids having different levels of interest and skill
> in regards to programming, and also deciding who gets to "control the robot"
> at the performance rounds.  I'm just owndering how that has played out over
> the course of the season for different teams.

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