Sure Frank!
I just didn't want to flood the list with a bunch of (often embarrassing) back and forth. I'm and old USENET junkie, so I always believe in sharing findings out to lists once answers are found.
So part of our (rookie) team's problem was definitely not understanding the truck scoring mission ("supporting the full weight (at the end)" was not during the movement of the truck, but only the end state.. so EITHER 50 or 60.. not both (typically.. unless
someone picks up and moves the whole truck ;) ).
But when discussing the ev3lessons tool with Sanjay, their default starting 96 points was confusing when comparing with other grading tools.. but looks correct after discussing with him.
I'm continuing to look at how the ref recorded our ending state... but right now it looks like we were shorted several of our black bars (all blk bars were left in original location or in the flower pot). I'll look at the grading sheet we were given back (tonight)
and report back here. Since we were exactly 32 points lower than expected.. I suspect we were shorted 4 black bars of credit. I'll report back once I know for sure. (was there anything else that can account for exactly 32points?)
Current Take Aways:
1) Obtain Intimate Working Knowledge of the End State Grading:
REALLY make sure the rules/scoring is understood by everyone on your team. Especially rookie teams (like us) but even more-so the kids.. since THEY are the ones who need to ask possibly challenge the ref's explanation of the recorded end of game state.
2) Use the Sample Scoring Sheets:
Actually USE the sample scoring sheets in your own test runs with the kids so that they are used to seeing and using them so that they can recognize ref grading issues (or misunderstadngins) before signing off on the ref's calls. Our kids had seen the rubric
sheets, but we never used a robot-game grading sheet with them.. so that's our (coaches) fault.
3) Ref State Review - Go slow and Ask Ask Ask:
Encourage the kids to ask refs when something looks off or is simply not understood.
Tell them to "Don't rush or feel pressured".
All things being equal (correct me if I'm wrong), but perceived scoring discrepancies can only lie in one of two places right?
i) bad call
or
ii) misunderstanding
either way.. the kids should be able to recognize an issue and either catch the bad call OR learn the correct state grading/rule.
Heh.. I know that with me at least, it's usually that latter (ii)
I'll let you all knwo what I find.
Tweeks
Given the fact that we are in tournament season and many teams are meeting this week and using the EV3Lessons scoring app, I would appreciate it if the discussion regarding errors (or not errors) remained out in the open. I checked it against
our interpretations of the rules and found no problems. As long as the whole thing is handled with Gracious Professionalism, it is better to have more eyes on potential problems.
The guys at EV3Lessons did a great job on this, please don't restrict the flow of information about such a public resource.
Frank Levine
The Robotic Rockets