[Cyberphil]

In my opinion, the first few days should consist of reading through the manual, understanding the game and the constraints, posing any questions that may need further clarification (from Mentors or FIRST), and digesting all of the information for that day.

In all honesty, robot design should not be discussed really at all until mid to late week 1 (again, this is my own opinion, so do not take this to heart).

In terms of paperwork, I cannot necessarily help you out, but I can recommend you create some incentive to read the manual thoroughly, such as creating a test the night of kickoff for students to take first thing in the next days meeting, and the person with the highest test scores get something in return.

After taking the test, go through each answer and explain what the answer was and where to find it in the manual. This will also get students acquainted with navigating through the manual as well.

It is difficult to get students to follow the engineering process, but when you do, great things happen.