*(thought I had sent a response earlier, but haven't seen it come through, here's a second go at it)* Adam, Last year was our first year and we very much underestimated the project part of FLL and learned a lot from the experience of unpreparedness. This year we dove right in with research, field trips, etc and are energized. I wish that we had asked for more help from veteran teams and mentors last year - it's my one regret. We're in Richmond and if we can help by visiting with your team or chatting a bit, we're more than happy to do that. Good luck! So much to learn the first time around. <<sigh>>. Hilary Sharpe On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Eric Crutchfield <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Hi Adam, > I was wondering that myself, so thanks for asking. > > I'll share our experience as a new team to see if it helps you decide one > way or the other. We decided to push our team of 10 5th grades to do both > project and robot, even though we didn't start meeting until Sept. 12th. We > spent the first 3 weeks building lego's, talking about the project, and > teaching them how to program the robot. Everyone was programming (4 laptops > with teams of 2-3 on each) almost every practice up until this last week. > Then we changed the structure so that just our best programmers are > programming (3-4), and we have 2 other teams, project (3-4) and robot design > (3). While the project group was a little put off at first, they seemed to > take to the job at hand with enthusiasm. We'll see if that holds true > tomorrow, and if this will be a successful way to organize the daunting > amount of work at hand. > > Good luck, whichever way you decide to go! > > Cheers, > Eric Crutchfield > Binary Beasts > Oak Grove Elementary, Roanoke > > > On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 7:09 PM, Adam Coonin wrote: > > A quick question, and sorry if it is obvious to everyone. Can our rookie > team enter a tournament and not present a project? the team is very new and > is much more focused on the robot game without much time for the project in > the rookie year. We know we would not be eligible to win the tournament. > > > Thanks, > > Adam > > ___________________________________ > > To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit * > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html*<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*<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. > -- 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.