Being Proactive About Paper Airplanes on Einstein

[gp2013]

Originally Posted by pilleya

I think the main issue here, is that there is a lot of waiting around. It is probably too late to organise something like this, but why not give the option to a few teams who didn’t make it to Einstein, but were in the Eliminations to volunteer their robots for some separate competitions before Einstein Occurs, or during long breaks.

Here are some examples of things that happened at events in previous years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efvCDYTj0Wk

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ight=drag+race (this happened at champs in 2008)

There are a lot of robots with treads and hi-traction pneumatic wheels this year. I think a 3 vs 3 tug of war; with 3 tracked robots vs 3 wheeled robots would be awesome.

Could these be conducted on the concrete arena floor or on carpet, near the Mass and Energy fields?

This would be awesome. Great idea! Put us down for power shooting and tug of war! Unless of course our robot is otherwise (hopefully) occupied!

[GeeTwo]

A possible compromise:
Distribute flyers announcing a paper airplane contest, possibly stuffing one in each program book or taking other pains to spread them widely but thinly. Use an unusual paper color. Encourage people to write their name and team number (or other contact information for non-team members) on the flyer, fold it into a plane, and launch it during a brief (2-5 minute) window during the buildup to Einstein. Have some sort of call out for the first person to hit the curtain, and perhaps a few other categories. Make it clear, both on the flyer and through announcements, that throwing paper airplanes (or other paper missiles) at other times or made of other materials is cause for expulsion.

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by CalTran

And here's where random trivia about streamers that I know comes in handy. The game with the largest capacity that Jackbox offers is Lie Swatter, for 1-100 players supposedly, but crashes spectacularly when there's more than 400 players. It would be interesting to try to work with Jackbox (or any other mobile gaming company) for a party game that works with literally thousands of players.

Interesting. I wonder how he was able to get 300+ in there.

[Andy A.]

Originally Posted by gp2013

This would be awesome. Great idea! Put us down for power shooting and tug of war! Unless of course our robot is otherwise (hopefully) occupied!

I vote for mentor drive team matches.

[pilleya]

Originally Posted by gp2013

This would be awesome. Great idea! Put us down for power shooting and tug of war! Unless of course our robot is otherwise (hopefully) occupied!

Power shooting sounds awesome and something that would be great to watch. We can get some real results on whose robot can shooter the furthest(not necessarily into the goal). This could happen between Einstein and the finale, as it wouldn't necessarily take too long.

I like the mentor robot driving!

Anyone else have any ideas?

[bigbeezy]

Personally I'm scared one of my kids will get hurt by one of these things. I've seen kids and adults, literally all ages, fold paper into sharp points and throw it as hard as they physically can. Having known more than one person to get hit in the eye with one how is this still a thing and how someone hasn't gotten severely injured... I recommend to my kids to wear safety glasses in the stands during this time, tho who wants to when you shouldn't need to.

As an alum, this is the most embarrassing part of Champs. Please walk in the aisles of the lower bowl prior to Einstein and walk on the actual concrete. It's impossible. You are only walking on trash.

As someone who had the honor to be on the field during Einstein last year. How rediculous is it that we have trash being thrown into our robot during the break. Why do I need to have my drivers adjust the placing of a stack because someone thought it'd be fun to throw trash onto the field during play! Why does Dean have to pause his speach because someone threw a plane onto the stage?? I just don't understand how this is a thing. It's just disrespectful. I never remember more than a handful of planes thrown in Atlanta in the 6 years I attended. I could have remembered wrong, but I don't remember it ever being what it is in St Louis.

[Woolly]

Originally Posted by gp2013

This would be awesome. Great idea! Put us down for power shooting and tug of war! Unless of course our robot is otherwise (hopefully) occupied!

If they do something like last year where they do a moment of silence for all the FIRST participants we've lost in the last year, a 21 boulder salute could probably be arranged at the end of it.

[rich2202]

How about showing a movie like: Slingshot, Underwater Dreams, Spare Parts ...

They could stop the movie when something is happening, and resume the movie during extended breaks.

[Carolyn_Grace]

No where else in FIRST do people argue to put fun and engineering ahead of safety and gracious professionalism, but when it comes to paper airplanes, apparently there's exceptions...

[Joe Johnson]

One suggestion for giving them something to do that I think might work is to have some folks make up some clever PollEveryWhere Questions (I have no stock in the company but I'm a big fan).

There are a TON of very cool things that you could do with a crowd that big and the huge screens they have.

Ask which field has the best robot alliance on Einstein and watch the results live -- more and more people vote as they see the "wrong" team winning (wrong in this context is any result they don't agree with).

Ask for suggestions from the audience for future game elements and watch a live wordcloud be generated with everyone's answers (swear filters available) -- of course WATER GAME will end up in a HUGE font in the middle of the wordcloud.

Vote for defenses, ask questions about the design challenge this year, maybe pick the best FIRST game ever in a multipart vote off (which was better Hexagon Havoc or Aim High?)...

I think this could be a huge hit and lots of fun actually.

Dr. Joe J.

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by Andy A.

I vote for mentor drive team matches.

Originally Posted by pilleya

I like the mentor robot driving!

Some off-season events do this, too. I like the idea of mentor matches!

[GoblinDarts]

Originally Posted by CalTran

And here's where random trivia about streamers that I know comes in handy. The game with the largest capacity that Jackbox offers is Lie Swatter, for 1-100 players supposedly, but crashes spectacularly when there's more than 400 players. It would be interesting to try to work with Jackbox (or any other mobile gaming company) for a party game that works with literally thousands of players.

So I did a quick search that can be a bit of an alternative, like Kahoot but on a more capable, diverse, and larger scale. The website for it is http://www.crowdpurr.com and under the plans it has an option for contacting them for extremely large events, claiming that there max participant count is unlimited. I doubt FIRST would have time to plan this at this point so close to Champs, but it can be a posible thought for next year and finding ways to fill in time. Also could be a way to educate people on funny facts/trivia of FIRST.

[Jared Russell]

Do audience selection of defenses on Einstein by having two large circles on the ground labelled "1" and "2". Whichever circle ends up with more paper airplanes in it wins, and that defense is selected.

[itsjustjon]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

Do audience selection of defenses on Einstein by having two large circles on the ground labelled "1" and "2". Whichever circle ends up with more paper airplanes in it wins, and that defense is selected.

This is amazing and messy at the same time. I like it.

[216Robochick288]

Originally Posted by hrench

Actually, I'm a mentor that doesn't think this is that big of deal.

Yes, airplanes shouldn't be thrown when important things are happening and they shouldn't have anything but paper in them. But certainly they're not more dangerous than great big beach balls that routinely hit people in the head.
(snip rest doesnt matter for what I have to say)

Beach balls are round, soft, and even when thrown from a height lands with a soft poof before heading off in a direction.

Airplaines have points and are made to cut through the air at a decent clip. Thank you, even without anything on them, THEY CAN CAUSE INJURIES. Wanna tell me otherwise? You can talk to both myself and my student who got hit in the eyebrow hard enough to get her eyebrow to bleed, and myself in the back of the head after trying to get to her to treat her, only to trip on several while trying to get to my student. I also have watched several grandparents go through at the end trying to walk on canes/walkers and whatnot and slipping. I had to hold one up as he walked out because the number of planes on the ground were causing issues with the walkways being super slick.

I have told all the teams that I mentor to not, and I will continue to do so. If I can somehow be out on the field when Einstein rolls around Im going to ask the MC to at least mention to be aware of when and when to not throw them, if you decide to at all. Throwing planes when presenters are talking or when a match is going is in no way shape or fourme acceptable. At that point if I saw my student do that Id treat them like I do with my LL students who wont stop pestering each other. Sit nicely in the chair with your hands on your knees until you calm down and can handle yourself.

Frank has said it, and a lot of prominent voices have said it. Ill add mine officially to the CD "Im an old fart (22 counts right?) who condones the throwing of paper airplanes" group.


EDIT: Someone once told me to participate in FIRST as if all our collective grandparents were watching. I would not want them to see us disrespecting speakers, interrupting matches, or creating a hazardous environment for people to walk around in. Find better ways to entertain yourself please