Mentor To Mentor Resource Thread
 

I know this is a little late in the season, but I thought it would be helpful if any FLL Coaches or Mentors that needed information, tips or otherwise that isn't on the FLL site had somewhere to look if no other resources are available. There are bound to be enough of us out there that we can provide an answer to just about any problem, right guys? :D

Re: Mentor To Mentor Resource Thread
 

Hi. This is Havergal's second year in FIRST Lego League, but we are still having problems, mainly with lack of interest from the students. They are constantly procrastinating and we had to rush to be able to complete our robot. Of course it was unsuccesful. The good thing is that now all the members (who are all new this year) can see what went wrong and what we want to fix for next time. The bad thing is that many are discouraged. How do you motivate your team and make learning a fun experience while getting things done?

Thank you so much,
- Stephanie, Robogators:3745 (FLL team)

Re: Mentor To Mentor Resource Thread
 

As a suggestion, try doing a mini-challenge. You set up rules and a field about the size of this year's and encourage them to do it. The other thing is that with the students procrastinating, you might to offer incentives (candy, pizza, extra competitions, you name it) for getting something done on time or early, and in a creative way.
And, use this as an object lesson. Something like, "Hey, you guys chose to mess around (or whatever), so not having a good robot is a consequence of that. How can you deal with this so you can go out and do better next time?" I bet they'll learn really fast.

The most important thing right now is encouragement. Encourage them to go beyond. Encourage them to try new things.

Re: Mentor To Mentor Resource Thread
 

After any season, throw a pizza party, with the rule that no food is consumed until every lego has been put in its place. Not only does it get things cleaned up, everyone gets to enjoy pizza.

If your lego kids aren't too involved with other things, a mini challenge would be a great thing. Or even better, why not continue to work on this years robot? Get it to work, and find out what went wrong. If there are other teams in your area, maybe get together and have an off season event of some sort.

Going into the next season, where your team is all fired up to make it to states, make sure that even if you have to grin and bear the hard workfor most of the meeting have a little fun at the end, or have a snacktime in the middle. Snack times are always fun. :rolleyes:

Re: Mentor To Mentor Resource Thread
 

As a way of getting the team to show progress we have a competition every week. It is easy for us since I am working with 6 teams in the same room. Combine the competition with weekly goals (i.e. one mission or part of a mission) and spice it with stories or discussions about other things that relate to the mission. This years mission and playing mat are great for jump off discussions on underwater exploration and contour mapping underwater. Sometimes teams just aren't mature enough to get through everything but if they have learned and had fun, that is pretty good.

Re: Mentor To Mentor Resource Thread
 

Hi Stephanie,

I can understand your frustration. I've been working with the St. Clement's girls for the past 4 years now, and I've run into a lot of what you were seeing. Believe me, it was really frustrating, as I was always well aware of the time constraints needed (having been involved with FLL since the 2000 Volcano Panic outside of St. Clement's). Most of the girls did not see the need to rush the work, and when I tried to push them to work in the first year of FLL at St. Clement's, I got a lot of complaints and girls dropping out. So, I knew exactly what you mean... Our girls were actually commenting about your robot at the Greenwood tournament.

One of the things that also really threw me for a loop was that the motivation techniques are totally different for an all girls team, vs a mixed boy-girl team.

I eventually had to gradually build up the girls over the past few years, slowly getting them aware of the time constraints. However, it did WORK! We won the Director's award at the Provincials this weekend, and the girls are totally excited about going to Atlanta. The few girls that were complaining about the work are now starting to see the payoff.

So, the best advice I can give you is to keep at it. It DOES pay off! Get the girls to see the tournaments, and get them to think about the different designs the other teams are using. Work with them and push them just a bit more each time. In our case, I have been working with them since January for this team.

Another thing that I found that I had to do was actually to bribe them with food rewards, and doing things like letting them work and practice until they had to leave, not making them clean up (yes, I know that they should, but between the choice of getting them to work on the robot for 15 more minutes and having to clean up after them, I chose the 15 minutes. One of the previous teachers made them start cleaning up while the kids were really into working on a specific mission, and I felt that really threw off their concentration.)

If you ever want to chat about any of the items, feel free to contact me. I am certainly willing to help, but of course, I can't give all our secrets away... :)


Paul Tan.
Coach/Parent/Mentor/Food Provider/Lego cleanup crew
St. Clement's Lego Robotics
SCS Pengiuns Team 752