Aerial Assist Drive Team Manual Test

[MooreteP]

Getting your team to read the manual thoroughly an issue?
Don't want to waste precious meeting time accomplishing this?

One of our solutions is the Drive Team test.

We are doing a two part test this year.

The first part is a take home test about robot design and constraints.
It gets the students to review the manual about the Robot and they learn on their own time at their leisure.
I will attach this.
Any comments and improvements would be appreciated.

The second part is a test of the tournament and game rules.
It includes the structure of the tournament, practice matches, surrogate robots, fouls, offensive and defensive strategy descriptions, and scoring scenarios.
i.e. Describe 4 autonomous scenarios where an Alliance scores the following points: 15, 33, 48, 75.

I will not attach this as this is the test that we will be giving our team in a sequestered environment to assess their knowledge of the game, ideas about strategy, their roles on the drive team, and their competence.

If you like the first test, PM me and I will send you the second one.

[BEN35678]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

Getting your team to read the manual thoroughly an issue?
Don't want to waste precious meeting time accomplishing this?

One of our solutions is the Drive Team test.

We are doing a two part test this year.

The first part is a take home test about robot design and constraints.
It gets the students to review the manual about the Robot and they learn on their own time at their leisure.
I will attach this.
Any comments and improvements would be appreciated.

The second part is a test of the tournament and game rules.
It includes the structure of the tournament, practice matches, surrogate robots, fouls, offensive and defensive strategy descriptions, and scoring scenarios.
i.e. Describe 4 autonomous scenarios where an Alliance scores the following points: 15, 33, 48, 75.

I will not attach this as this is the test that we will be giving our team in a sequestered environment to assess their knowledge of the game, ideas about strategy, their roles on the drive team, and their competence.

If you like the first test, PM me and I will send you the second one.

Great Test Thanks

[Liam Kosloski]

My team does this too, we ended up having as a barrier before we could do the actual driver tryout and it worked very well in making sure the drive team knew the rules.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

Getting your team to read the manual thoroughly an issue?
Don't want to waste precious meeting time accomplishing this?

One of our solutions is the Drive Team test.

We are doing a two part test this year.

The first part is a take home test about robot design and constraints.
It gets the students to review the manual about the Robot and they learn on their own time at their leisure.
I will attach this.
Any comments and improvements would be appreciated.

The second part is a test of the tournament and game rules.
It includes the structure of the tournament, practice matches, surrogate robots, fouls, offensive and defensive strategy descriptions, and scoring scenarios.
i.e. Describe 4 autonomous scenarios where an Alliance scores the following points: 15, 33, 48, 75.

I will not attach this as this is the test that we will be giving our team in a sequestered environment to assess their knowledge of the game, ideas about strategy, their roles on the drive team, and their competence.

If you like the first test, PM me and I will send you the second one.

To qualify to be on the drives team on our team you have to take a written rules test.
There's really no excuse to not know the rules.

[goofy173]

We ask rules questions before they are allowed to eat lunch on days we work all day. Plus there were tests the first day and week that were required to get a passing rate of 80%.

They really were attentive when food was withheld!

[MooreteP]

I have had a lot of requests for the tests.
It's a good time in our build season to prepare our students for the competitions.

I am still holding out on the copy of the Drive Team Game Rules and Strategy Test. It's a good test of game rules and team protocols for time outs and backup Robot substitution.
I will post it here after next week.

I will send it to you if you PM me with an email address.

[Ikillee]

Should someone who isn't involved in the build or is involved very little be allowed to try out for the drive team?

[ZeroGAdam]

Thanks so much Pete! This is a great assessment to really let our head mentors know which students know the rules and understand the logistic of a competition!

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Ikillee

Should someone who isn't involved in the build or is involved very little be allowed to try out for the drive team?

In my opinion, no. There may be exceptions on a case by case basis.

If you're just on the team to drive a robot, the team has probably got a few demos you can show up at. Drive there.

Being on the drive team is a privilege. There are a bunch of students on the team; no more than 4 get to be on the drive team. I've actually seen a student removed from a drive team (for a time) for violating team rules. If you're not there and putting in the work, why should you be considered for one of the most prestigious spots on the team?

As noted, if I were making the rules, I'd do exceptions on a case-by-case basis. Good exceptions would include being out due to sickness, if the person was otherwise dedicated, or other "unavoidable issues" not having to do with school or other extracurricular activities. I'd also have an exception the other way, for someone who was present but not productive at a lot of meetings.

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by ZeroGAdam

Thanks so much Pete! This is a great assessment to really let our head mentors know which students know the rules and understand the logistic of a competition!

You are welcome. We are finally giving the test to the candidates this weekend.

If anyone still wants a copy of the Game Rules, Tournament Rules, and Strategy Test, please PM me with your email address.

We are finishing up our practice bot for the Suffield Shakedown scrimmage next Saturday.
Driver practice all week. Another important component of the selection process.

Here we go again!

[Joe Derrick]

Mooretep sent me the file, our team is going to use it more as a worksheet, but the questions are great and provoke some interesting discussion.

Thanks!

[MooreteP]

A new and improved version of the Drive Team Game, Strategy, and Tournament Rules test is here.

It is based on feedback from the students and now includes yellow and red card questions and improved sequencing and a tricky true false question.

PM me with your email address and I will send it to you.

I will also try to send the new and improved version to those who have already received the previous revision.

[Bill_B]

I'd bet that the GDC would have to crack the manual themselves to get all these right. I still remember a prof whose philosophy was that if it were possible to get a perfect score, it was not really a test. Think of a thermometer that only goes to 200 degrees. Useless for a boiling pot.

Thanks for the work on this. I can hear the groans at our next meeting already.

[dellagd]

There are a few questions where your answer should fill in the blank easily but then have an "except when" after it. Were you just looking for the generalization for such rules?

Like "The BUMPER must be backed by the FRAME PERIMETER at least every 8 in. except when the gap between the bumpers and the frame is <= 1/4"


That being said... I like it *insert evil grin emoticon*

[MooreteP]

So, after emailing out about 30 copies of the Game and Tournament Rules test, I am thinking about posting it here for everyone.

I was waiting until our team completed it and was hesitant from a test security standpoint for teams that wanted to make sure that students didn't have an advanced copy before taking it.

Incidentally, the test for us was the second or third criteria that we used to select the Drive Team. We placed a good deal of importance on time commitment and driving ability.

The most value from the test was through an immediate review and discussion of the possible answers. (most had a hard time with the fouls, yellow and red cards, timeout and backup robot rules.)

Thanks to those who offered improvements that I incorporated in later versions.

So, my question is: Should I just post it, or should I wait until Week One?