[Rich Wong]

Originally posted by tenfour
I am looking to start a FLL Team at my local emementary school as a joint venture. The principal has already registered and obtained the lego mindstorm kits. She has asked me to organize the actual class for the competition. I am a FIRST Vet., but know nothing about this.

I was wondering if anybody here has any experience with this. If so, I would like to speak with you. If you could e-mail me at: cdk@1stnetusa.com or reply with some contact information, this would much appreciated.

-Chris Kilpatrick
Team 696 Vet.

The biggest challenge I've run across is mentoring the kids, which can be age 9 to age 14. That is several levels of maturely. A lot of patience. (yes, crying and fighting has happen)
Also, some parents prefer weekend training and building instead of after school.
I found that having the parents understand and get excited about the FLL challenges makes working with their kids easier.

FLL is very easy for veteran FRC students but put 10 rookie FLL students in front of a box of Lego and a 20 page FLL Challenge manual; thing are not that easy for them.

And deciding on the theme of the research project portion of FLL can also take a long time. The parents are very helpful with motivating the FLL students in this area.
Good luck.