[DFTF] Things a Rookie Team Should Do in the Fall...

[BJC]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

This is part of a series of posts called Drinking From The Firehose on getting Dr Joe back up to speed on All Things FIRST.

Okay, so I'm a Rookie Again. I've got 50 kids signed up (Shout out to the Nutrons 125 who came to my high school club fair with their robot -- you guys are awesome). That's great as far as it goes, but these kids have no idea (mostly) what FIRST is and what it means. They saw a cool robot and signed their names to the page.

Okay, maybe I'm not a true rookie, but it has been a long time since I've been involved and even longer since I was in the role of founding a team.

I need to write grant proposals. I need to get the administration up to speed. I need to reach out to sponsors (and find a rich one if I can ;-)
I need to get my kids to an afterglow competition (I am thinking about River Rage in late October) where they can talk with other teams and see the elephant.

Oh, and I need to inspire my kids.

AND...

...YOU TELL ME.

Joe J.

On the Killer Bees during the offseason we:

-Compete in 4 offseason events (MARC, IGVC, IRI, Kettering Kickoff)
-Demo our robot at various community events
-Find new sponsors (contact, presentation/demo, follow-up)
-Compete in the OCCRA (Oakland Community Competitive robotics association)
-Compete in Vex VRC (first time this year)
-Are Beta testing Labview for FIRST
-Are designing and building a protoype chassis to:
--test several drivetrain configurations
--to develop a new driver control system
--improve previous driving code
--and so we can use it as a defensive bot during the actual season.
-Clean (a lot)

If I were leading a rookie team and it was our first meeting I would show them some Unveiling Videos. These inspire like none other. Here is a thread with lots of good ones. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=88126

As a rookie team, going an offseason event near you and getting into contact with various teams will significantly help modivate new team members. I might also suggest going through old games and figuring out the best way to play them. Then once the students think they know the answer (this could be a 15min thing or as detailed as a 2D Cad model of their prospective robot.) Go over the Einstein videos of that year and figure out what you overlooked in the game and why. This can be great for developing your new students problem solving skills and a great way to introduce the Engineering Design process so that your students already have their feet wet when the season begins.

Another really great thing is using a projector and taking another team's CAD model off the internet and disecting it as a team. Figure out why they do things the way they did. You can even contact them with questions. Doing this allows you to expand your new team's knowledge of FRC robot design.

Finally, as a rookie team you need to get your students some sort of hands-on experience. Many people are suggesting design projects. However, when the students don't have prior experience these will basically always fail. They first need to be able to use a wrench, bandsaw, etc (left is loose ). Woodworking is a good and inexpensive way to introduce your students to building. Let them design and build something like a small bookshelf. (Keep in mind this will not help your design shelf but will rather educate your students.)

Practices like these will make your team EXTREAMLY competitive as a first year team. However, the most important thing is that you just do something to keep the team active throughout the first half of the year.

Good Luck, Bryan