[FTC]: Judging Session and Student Ideas

[MattRain]

This is straight from our Valley X Robotics' website. On there we have tips and tricks. There is a compeititon tab in there, that can explain some of the stuff that will be going on at competiton if this is your first one. http://valleyx2844.com

Judging

Once you pass inspection, by that time, or around there, you will probably be given a sheet of paper with your judging time. THAT RARELY CHANGES, don’t miss it! That is your time to shine to the judges. When you go in, they will ask you different questions. Be ready to answer question, like who everyone is on the team, and what they do. (MENTORS and PARENTS, if you go into the judging room, which some vendors will let you do, DON’T talk, your not allowed.) Let your students shine It’s the students responsibility to talk about the team and robot.

​Here are some things you as students should be ready to answer:

- Your team / your position or what you do on the team
- Outreach
- Your robot (Go into detail of the strengths or unique designs of your bot)
- Your weaknesses. (Be ready for this question, it comes up sometimes)
- What Gracious Professionalism means to YOU. (This WILL come up)

[TRWSHSHLX]

1. Yes they should each introduce themselves (name & title in the team). Keep it short. Shake hands if you can. For all the competitions I went to they sit behind a table so it's a bit of an inconvenience but it can't hurt.

2. Bowing is a nice touch but nothing more than that - not necessary but can't hurt.

3. No. The goal of judging is to present your team & robot, not to "show off" how many languages each student know. It distracts away from the presentation. However it can be noted in the engineering journal if you have a profile section.

4. Yes. Each students do something on the team so they can talk about what they do for example. It also shows team balance / dynamic / work.

5. Think of it as a conversation. You are telling someone about your team and what you do. It's more towards casual since all the technical stuff are recorded (or they should be) in your engineering journal; the team is there to talk with the judges and clarify / highlight anything they want to talk about. Practice a few times and have a general guideline / routine that the team does, like first introduce themselves, then each subsystems of the robot, then Q&A, etc.

6. The judges usually let you know how long the team have to present and for a Q/A. Practice beforehand helps tremendously.

[F Elliott]

Awesome suggestions and ideas everyone. It will help me tremendously in giving structure and guidance to my students. Many thanks!

There have been two local teams and coaches who have been a big help to us. I was going to have our team acknowledge them during our judging session.

[Carol]

Originally Posted by F Elliott

There have been two local teams and coaches who have been a big help to us. I was going to have our team acknowledge them during our judging session.

Great idea! That helps not only you but those teams as well. Judges do take note of that.