The First Build Season

[John Retkowski]

As that wonderful time of year rolls around again, veteran teams (Which in this discussion will just be teams older than 1 year) find a new group of rookies moving in. Whether they be first year seniors all the way down to 8th graders, many kids new to FRC will be getting involved.

So. What are the veterans' advice for first year students during build season? How can the older members and mentors help alleviate the "I'm just standing around all the time" or "sorting nuts and bolts isn't helping the team" feeling that rookies to a robotics team so often have? What should new students expect during build season? Can they prepare before hand? Will this take years off of their life?

I'm looking forward to seeing Chief Delphi's perspective on this wonderful issue.

[cad321]

I've been on my team for the past 4 years and this year (5th) will be my first mentoring. One of the biggest things I tell our rookies is that no matter how small and useless their task may seem, it is all vital to the building of the bot. If its sorting nuts and bolts, now someone else isn't spending 20 minutes looking for the hardware they needed.

Our team is also notorious for using an absolute ton of 1/2in aluminum standoffs that are usually made by the rookies. They always complain about it because its tedious and takes a lot of time to make the quantity we need. However the robot would not function without them (critical part) and after their made, each person is 20x better at operating the machines than they were before.

Moral of the story, everything you do during build season matters.

[SenorZ]

Key is to have them trained in useful skills BEFORE season comes. We have about 15 freshmen students attending our fall training workshops. We will have each new member (freshman or otherwise) get certified in different areas of interest:

• Tool use
• CAD
• Programming
• Systems integration
• Fundraising
• Communications/Website
• Wiring/Electrical
• Scouting/Strategy

One of our freshmen last year was one of our strongest members and is now an officer.
And, when all other tasks are taken, have newer students DOCUMENT what everyone else is doing on paper or via photo. It comes in handy for all involved.

[carpedav000]

I only have one piece of advice for rookies. DO YOUR SCHOOL WORK. It sucks to go through build season just to be put on the cannot travel/participate list.

[Bob Steele]

My recommendation is to find a veteran team that is close to you and willing and have students go and attend their meetings and see how a team is run.
Ask for help... most teams will offer it...

Another great exercise is to go back a few years and pull out an old game from the archives (game manual and kickoff materials), pretend that is the new game and do brainstorming and strategy on the game as you see it in those materials. Don't have students check out any videos of the game online but just do what you will have to do at kickoff. Start your design process and sketch out what your robot would look like and what capabilities it would have. Then take that 'model' and figure out your game strategy.

At that point, go and dig up game videos from that year... perhaps look at the ones from the championship and see how the game was really played. See if your strategy would have worked. Look for robots that were similar to the one you "modeled"

Assess whether you made good choices or bad choices... what was successful in the real game? Did it play the way you thought it would play? What would you do differently ?

This is a great exercise for a new team ( and for many veteran teams too)


Something else that mentors/coaches need to do is to identify sources of the materials you will be needing and make contact with them... find out how you can order and get things quickly... having a source list before the season (just ask around if you need help doing this..) will enable you to react more quickly and maximize your time on task.

Lastly, figure out how you are going to handle money now.... How does your school do it? If you have grants how do you access them? Can someone be reimbursed and how do you do it and how quickly can they get their money back.... cash flow can be tricky depending on how your team funds are kept.

FIRST and foremost... ask other teams for help We all like to do it..
We all like everyone to succeed!! and you will....

good luck and see you on the field!!

[feverittm]

I agree with these comments regard simulating the first week activities. We do a similar exercise for our new students (we call it 'Week in a day'). We go as far as trying to prototype some of the systems using cardboard, tape, else cheap to see how to get going fast. It really helps new team members when they go into Kickoff.

One suggestion while working with your school on money. Try to get a few of the higher order vendors pre-qualified by your school (like AndyMark, Vex Robotics, etc). This way when you need to write a PO the school already has the company's information on file and is ready for it.

You should make sure that the parents and the school administration have a clear idea as to the commitment that the students will be expected to make during build season. It helps as you approach week 6 and the students are spending every waking (and sometime sleeping) moment working on the robot.

Also you have a good start connecting to the community here on CD. Make sure your students know about it. You could even have someone assigned to keep track of CD and the FIRST FRC Blog. That way you won't miss things as they are announced.

Have fun!

[Munchskull]

^ Beat me to it.

The best advice I can give IMHO is make sure that students understand the stress that can a company build season. Also what I found personally helpful when I was an eight grader (four years ago) was I ended up shadowing older members of the team for most of the season, (this may be because I was a special case for our team barring me from operating any machines and large powertools), the experience that the new students can get from shadowing is very educational.

That said the team environment for me was the most important factor in how enjoyable and rewarding ever things were. I think that making new students feel welcome and among friends is just as important as teaching new skills. That way they will stay for the years to come ( it sure worked for me).

TL;DR : What I enjoyed as an eight grade on my team was shadowing older students and learning from them, and the welcoming environment that lead to many friendships.

[GeeTwo]

Some great stuff above, and I commend each and every post. Here's my $.02 for stuff that I didn't see covered but have on my mind:

Turn challenges into opportunities. Here are a couple of opportunties unearthed by the first reply to this thread:

Originally Posted by cad321

I've been on my team for the past 4 years and this year (5th) will be my first mentoring. One of the biggest things I tell our rookies is that no matter how small and useless their task may seem, it is all vital to the building of the bot. If its sorting nuts and bolts, now someone else isn't spending 20 minutes looking for the hardware they needed.

Do the bolt sorting before the season starts. Get the veterans as well as the rookies involved. The veterans know that it's important, don't they? Treat this just like a full-up build task - group some veterans as leaders/mentors with some rookies. That way, your sorting gets done right, the veterans and rookies bond and learn each others' styles, and the second-year students have already had a tiny taste of student mentoring.

Another thing we're trying this year with our annual hardware sort: In each box of bolts and nuts, we're going to designate one of the largest sections "unsorted". That way, if when someone is not going to take the time to properly sort a bolt or nut, there's a spot that (s)he can drop it so that it doesn't "get in the way" when people are looking for parts later that week. We're also hoping that it will greatly accelerate the hardware sort maintenance tasks.

Originally Posted by cad321

Our team is also notorious for using an absolute ton of 1/2in aluminum standoffs that are usually made by the rookies. They always complain about it because its tedious and takes a lot of time to make the quantity we need. However the robot would not function without them (critical part) and after their made, each person is 20x better at operating the machines than they were before.

Anybody read the first part of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer? Take a few lessons from Tom as he "outsourced" the whitewashing of the fence. I'm not suggesting that you cheat the rookies into doing the work, but you should look at the methods he used to motivate (dare I say INSPIRE?) his nominal peers:

• Inspect their work critically but graciously, and with praise when appropriate. When you send back a piece of inferior work, you implicitly communicate the importance of quality. Make it clear that the quality and speed of their work will be taken into account when the next set of jobs are assigned: people who are fast and of fair quality will be given bigger (but still relatively simple) jobs, and those who do great work will be promoted to doing the "artisan" machining. And no, we're not doing it as a "reward", but simply because we want to make the best use of our skills to compete!
• Give them incentive to do this simple task. Perhaps one of the end-of-year prizes on your team could be "machined the greatest number of parts on the robot". Don't make this as prestigious as your GP or student mentorship or top fundraiser awards, but still something that might make them want to put in an extra effort. Maybe you have a "member of the week" or "member of the month" that could be awarded to someone who is particularly prolific or proficient at these basic tasks.
• This is not inspired by Mr. Clemens, but make them part of the larger picture. There are always a few people who are ready to take pride in a 1/2" spacer for its own merits, but most people want to feel like they're part of something bigger than a spacer or standoff. Don't take your (making up numbers here) six mechanical rookies and make them into a "spacer machining crew for the whole robot". Instead, split those rookies up among the chassis, pickup, and scoring hardware teams (your teams may vary, of course, but I hope you get the idea), and give those rookies the job of machining the spacers used here for the drive system, and here for the pickup, and here for the scorer. Of course, don't make it a secret that they are all making copies of the same part; give them at least an opportunity to come together to learn from each other. To really close the "ownership" aspect: let each of them install (or at least assist in the installation) of the pieces (s)he machined. Each can then take personal pride (or embarrasment) in the performance of that particular mechanism.

Originally Posted by cad321

Moral of the story, everything you do during build season matters.

Let me amend that by dropping "during build season". Everything you do during summer and fall recruiting matters. Everything you do during tryouts matters. Everything you during "teaching season" matters. Everything you do during build, competition, and post-competition season matter. Don't forget that the real mission is to inspire and recognize those who may be heading towards a career in Science, Technology, Engineering,and Mathematics, including those who represent these activities to "the money people".

Also, we have definitely have had "power freshmen" and "power rookies" every year, and TL;DR to list here. We've found that it's much healthier for the team for students to see that a rookie/freshman or second year member has earned a varsity or officer billet, than to have one awarded to someone simply because (s)he's been on the team 3 or 4 years.

[hectorcastillo]

Originally Posted by carpedav000

I only have one piece of advice for rookies. DO YOUR SCHOOL WORK. It sucks to go through build season just to be put on the cannot travel/participate list.

I think this goes for all students. Well, except for second semester seniors of course

[DaveL]

My suggestion is to build a robot this fall.
While doing this, learn about how to build a frame, install wheels, transfer power from motors to the wheels and install the electronic modules.

If funds are available buy tools now like; a band saw, sander, drill press, drills, drill bits, files, wrenches, nuts and bolts, rivets, rivet guns, screw drivers, #25 and #35 chain with a chain breaker for each size.

Buy material like plywood 1/4" and 3/4" thick, 1" square aluminum tubes, sheet aluminum 1/8" thick and 1/8" thick ABS or Polycarb plastic.

Read the Kit of Parts assembly manual.
Review the available parts at AndyMark and Vex.

Look at lots of robot videos to see how those parts have been used in the past.

Like others mentioned: simulate a past game and then watch videos of the top teams to understand their strategy and construction techniques.

Have the programmers get their development environment set up and start coding. Test different ways of setting up your joysticks. Give your team a chance to drive the bot.

Create a process for making decisions.

Develop a way to clearly communicate with your team when to meet, what kind of robot is being built and what decisions have been made.

Best of luck.
Build Mentor Dave