We had the same phenomenon at our tournament. The Div II teams with lower scores on average than the Div I teams.
I had a rookie Div I team several years ago in another state - the focus of that age group in meetings and on programming the robot simply and efficiently was very good. They were mostly just trying to get a very simple program to work and then move on to the next mission. They scored fairly well in the robot game and I pretty much could only show them how to turn on the robot and pull up the program on the computer.
Fast forward to this year and coaching a Div II team for second year here in VA and I can see the thought processes are very different. So many great ideas for innovative ways to get the missions done - very fun to watch them think through and try all manner of really cool ideas - but not always the most consistent working programs. And I still don't know the program - especially since we upgraded to EV3 :)
I know that is not explanation for all of the teams, but is my experience with both levels.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sujata Mohapatra <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Nov 11, 2013 12:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VADCFLL-L] About VADC Tournaments
Thanks to the all organizers, judges, volunteers for their hard work to
make the tournament successful at Chantilly.
I am coaching a team since last 2 years, but I I have enough experience
from coaching teams in other STEM activities (Odyssey of the mind etc.) to
guide a team and observe a team. If I understand correctly the main purpose
of FLL is to motivate students to involve in STEM and apply to the real
world. Last week our team was competing in division II in Chantilly High
school. The team had a sound score on all 3rd round of robot performance.
All our team members are very focused and very interested in science,
academically very bright. I am working with them since last 6 years and
very proud of them. Some of the team members have 3-4 years of NXT
programming experience. When they were practicing I realized how much hard
work, perfection, calculation and time management needed to get a good
score in the tournament. In reality most of the teams struggle with
managing time of 150 minutes. Last week in Chantilly,most of the division
II ( above 7 grade) could not achieve 200 points in any of the round where
3rd/4th grader rookie team got a consistence score in all 3 rounds above
(250- 390). Unbelievable!
Sorry to ask this question to the coaches who are programming the robot for
their teams, Are you giving chance to the kids to learn or your main
priority is to get an award and proceed to the next level? Definitely, FLL
Core value does not allow this.
FLL should give a spontaneous robot task to the teams to program and run
the robot during the robot design and programming judging time to test the
ability of the team.
Thanks.
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