Lessons Learned - The Negative

[BurtGummer]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

I hate to harp on the same post as everyone else, but nearly all respect for this post was lost when I read the quoted sentences above.

The issue here is not about the wire color (which obviously does matter, but I'll leave that aside for now), it's about that you admitted you had not read the rule book before the competition. Then you come out and complain about the wiring color? As a tip for future years, take the time on Kickoff Day and fully read through the sections of the manual on The Game, The Robot, and The Arena. Read every rule as if you've never read it before. Don't ever assume anything.

Smokey the Fisher Price motor says only YOU can prevent rule infractions.

To be quite honest I did not have the time. If I could make a 36 hour day, then maybe. The student assigned for rules did not complete the task, and after talking with him, he did not seem to understand why it was a problem at all. There are other issues at work here but I would rather not discuss them on these boards. For a quick background, we didn't have a kickoff day.....we didn't even know about the competition until after kickoff day. We started on February 4th, and until ship date I was building, coding, debugging, wiring, fixing, more debugging, more building......you get the picture. I am not saying it's an excuse at all, and if it does, I apologize. When your working the whole day Thursday swiss cheesing the robot to make weight, and you find out the robot doesn't fit size, then wiring colors are incorrect, and that the bumpers were less than adequate, you get, well, really annoyed. I'm still cooling down from the stress of this weekend.....and I'm sure it's obvious in my posts.

If I end up mentoring next year, it will start on kickoff day, a student will read the rulebook, another student will learn programming, and another student will work on scouting systems, etc. With 6 students on the team this year, and none having experience in FIRST, it made it REALLY difficult. We did great! But we have so many things we could have improved upon if we had the time and larger workforce.

Unfortunately, the other students have never had the experience with tools, power tools, or coding programs, or just working on something mechanical. The feeder schools that feed our high school don't have any 'woodshop' type classes, and neither does our high school. I was the only person who had this experience, because to be honest, I'm a freak, haha. I've worked on pinsetting machines at bowling alleys, which gave me most of the mechanical experience. I feel bad because I couldn't teach the other team members how to use certain tools, but the time just wasn't there But already I'm thinking of doing a whole after school type of class in the fall on what tools are and how to use them, along with coding and wiring, so we don't build our next robot in the dark.

All in all, we learned it is almost completely about planning and good organization. It wasn't possible this year, but next year it will be a priority.

Oh, and about Championships. How is judging really done? I only saw 2 judges the entire time at our pit. Is that normal? If it is, I think a large judging force should be used, just like the regionals.