Tips For FLL Teams

[joeweber]

I have been working with FLL students since 2003 and worked through some difficult games and some easy games. For the game it comes down to how accurate your robot is when it is counting rotations. I have made up a tip list for building a robot that will count more accurate and allow the students to have a better showing at a competition. I feel bad for the students that try hard and have no Idea what to do to make their robot better. When they work for weeks and can only score 20 or 30 points and other teams are scoring 300 and 400 points. Even some of the Adult leaders do not know what to do. If you link http://team1322.org/lego.htm and read some of the tips it may help you understand how to make the NXT very accurate. Using these tips this year we are able to obtain a perfect score almost every time. I am not saying that you will get a perfect score but you will have an easier time getting a higher score.

[joeweber]

A other item is teams not using a table for thier kids. Some of the Lego games you need to use the side wall of the table for the robot to follow. Please make a table for them, it will work much better for you.
For instructions on a folding Lego table link http://team1322.org/other_tipps.htm and scrol to the bottom.

[Akash Rastogi]

Remember that FLL is composed of a few basic tasks every yearushing, pulling, lifting, dropping. Even in off season, students can learn how to build simple end effectors and drive trains that pertain to these tasks.
Another useful link is to The Art of LEGO Design It may or may not help some teams, but it is still worth looking through.

[Joe G.]

http://www.wormtownpaul.com/tips%20f...ew%20teams.htm
Hasn't been updated since before the release of the NXT, but most of the principles still apply.

[joeweber]

I would like to see a long list of help on this forum for team mentors and the students to come to and learn. I also think that their should be a push for a Lego team in every junior high school like there is for FRC in high school. Some of the Lego teams are well supported from FRC teams and have a good understanding of what FIRST is about but there are those that are run by persons that are doing the best they can and are not getting the support from the schools or the parents that they need and need our help. The different areas that are covered by FLL are great but one person can teach the projects well but not the robot builds. Another can teach team work well but not the project. It is hard for a one mentor team to do it all. If we could let all the mentors of FLL know that this forum is here and has a lot of information, other mentors to talk to and Links to helpful sites they would feel a little les overwhelmed. Just like FRC sharing ideas can always help.