[Jon Stratis]

I've found the best way to train is to jump right into it. Come up with a project you can follow end to end with a specified deadline. Why not look at your robot, and decide to add something to it for one of the off-season events, like MRI (Roseville, a little early in the fall) or the Minne-Mini (Prior Lake, a little later in the fall)? I don't know what your robot is like off the top of my head, but build a full court shooter mechanism for it, or a pneumatic 10-point climber.

If that doesn't work, have the students design and build a robust battery cart. Have them build some sort of practice robot (ever done mecanum drive? This could be a great time to try it out!), or even a driving chassis you can bolt stuff to later in the season to use as a practice robot.

With any of this, you need to help break it down into discrete steps for them. If the students aren't yet capable of doing so themselves, come into each meeting and spend the first 5 minutes laying out what you want to accomplish and how it should be done. Make sure they can see the end goal from the beginning, and how their work each night contributes to it.

If you want to chat, our team would be willing to share some details from our summer and fall programs. We're local too, so sitting down and talking through it might be the easiest way!