Organization and BEST Robotics

[funggiss]

my team 1825 does both frc and best our team name is the same in both cases Metro Homeschool Robotics

we go to the fort smith hub

[xitaqua]

BEST is also a good place to start for home school teams, specially since it is free for teams to participate, and for home school teams, it might be a challenge comming up with $6,000, specially from sponsors......

Does anyone know of a BEST hub in St. Louis ?

I seen a team in Ponca City, OK that has both FIRST/BEST, and they told me the same thing said before in this thread : Good to bring Freshment up to speed. It is mandatory for that team in OK for underclassmen to do BEST, before participating in FIRST from my understanding.....

Cheers,
Marcos.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by xitaqua

Does anyone know of a BEST hub in St. Louis ?

I seen a team in Ponca City, OK that has both FIRST/BEST, and they told me the same thing said before in this thread : Good to bring Freshment up to speed. It is mandatory for that team in OK for underclassmen to do BEST, before participating in FIRST from my understanding.....

Cheers,
Marcos.

Have you checked out the BEST website?

I'm including a link from the website that provides a map. It's a good visual.
http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/HubInfo/hub_map

LASA Robotics has participated in BEST for several years. If you would like to ask any questions, I'll be happy to answer - just send me a private message.

Jane

[GarrettF2395]

My FRC team (2395 The Ninja Munkees) is actually 2 different homeschool teams (OKC Homeschool and COACH)
I'm on OKC Homeschool, other teams I know of that do FIRST are 1429 out of Galena Park TX. 932 of Tulsa OK. and 476 From Ponca OK.
All of us competed at the Frontier Trails Regional last year, as well as competing in the Oklahoma FRC Regional.

BEST teaches you things that you don't necessarily learn in FRC.
Specifically how to take very little and turn it into something you can compete with.
I'll give you an example. In FIRST, if you need a gear for a motor that raises your robots arm, you go to AndyMark, or another website, and order the part you need. In BEST if you need a gear, you have to look at your current resources and figure out what material you will use, wood, PVC, aluminum? Then you have to figure out how you will make it, and how to connect it to the motor.
Im not saying you can't learn these things in FRC, a lot of teams do.
But things like using very limited resources to the best of your ability, and very hands on construction are just a few ways FIRST and BEST Differ.
Also, even though BEST gets written off as easy sometimes, once you get to the regional level, it's fairly difficult to win.
My team competes in BEST for the same reasons we compete in FIRST.
To learn, to grow as a team, and to increase our experience in both engineering and building competitive robots.
I greatly encourage all FIRST teams to get involved with BEST somehow, its a great learning experience.

(Darn Paul beat me too it)

[JaneYoung]

Thank you for your kind words, Paul.

Garrett is right, BEST isn't easy but man, is it fun!

[blankgw]

I am the Executive Director of BEST Middle and High School Robotics (www.bestinc.org), a free program for schools. We license our game to organizations, colleges/universities - any group that is willing to start and sustain a "hub" (local competition site). BEST is a fall competition and many BEST schools also do FIRST - but we've never polled our 750-plus participating schools to get a count. We welcome FIRST schools/teams to participate in BEST - they can then have a year-round robotics program!

This fall we have 33 hubs in 13 states. Our long-term goal is to grow BEST across the country, particularly in communities where schools cannot afford to compete in FIRST.

George Blanks
Director of K-12 Engineering Outreach
Ginn College of Engineering
Auburn University (AL)

[xitaqua]

tanguma26,

You are right BEST Robotics is good to get teams warmed up, I have also found out that it is a good platform to teach adult mentors since you can have more employees engaged by having multiple small teams instead of one big team working on robots.

This year we have 3 teams of employees working on 3 robots, aproximatlly 15+ employees learning how to work tools such as a jigsaw to make a robot wheel.....

We had our first demo at the community a week ago :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFBIQFdsQ2M

[JaneYoung]

I've always hoped to see more teams get involved in both programs. They each provide excellent opportunities. One point that I would stress is that BEST is not FIRST and FIRST is not BEST. That would need to be fully understood and respected by teams that participate in each program.

Further thought - many teams that only compete in FRC, spend time organizing and jelling as a team during the FRC build/competition season. Competing in BEST helps with that in some ways. Not all of our students participate in BEST and not all of our students participate in FIRST, but enough do to help us identify what we need to work on and tweak as we move into the FRC season. Also, over time, we have developed into a team that is year round - spending our off season from BEST and FIRST on fundraising, outreach, and working on team organization/management. What we have to watch for is burnout. For LASA Robotics, both competitions demand the best the team has to offer in several areas, not just the robot competition. Constantly working to improve and develop is challenging, exciting, and draining. So, we watch for that and try to keep everything in perspective, setting realistic goals. Dream big yet have a respect for reality - finding that balance.

Jane

[Pjohn1959]

Originally Posted by xitaqua

Does anyone know of a BEST hub in St. Louis ?.

The closest hub is the Music City hub in Nashville, Tenn.

I seen a team in Ponca City, OK that has both FIRST/BEST, and they told me the same thing said before in this thread : Good to bring Freshment up to speed. It is mandatory for that team in OK for underclassmen to do BEST, before participating in FIRST from my understanding.....

Cheers,
Marcos.

Yes, team 476, the Wildcats, have been doing this successfully for many years...

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

LASA Robotics has participated in BEST for several years.
Jane

Only team I know of that has won a Chairman's Award and a State BEST Award. Congratulations