The year after the rookie year

[nlknauss]

Originally Posted by eagle33199

I just wanted to highlight this, as it's an excellent suggestion (and something my team does every year). One thing to keep in mind, however, if the different perspective people will have. It's important to have separate mentor- and student-only discussions, and to have separate discussions within each subteam. As a mentor, every year I have to remind myself that, while we do the best that we can, we make mistakes, and the students may not feel comfortable telling us directly what we did wrong. By letting them have their own group meeting where everything is recorded (with no names next to anything!), it gives them a way to give us that feedback as well.

And I wanted to highlight this!

Certainly establishing a communication/feedback loop is something that is extremely important for teams as they wish to grow and become more successful. Some teams do this by establishing student leadership, others by just developing open communication skills as described above.

On my team, we collect the student data, the mentors try to group it as best we can (usually there are some common trends), and then show the students what they all said as a collective group. The mentors meet to discuss how we can work with the students through these trends and develop some kind of plan. It's all about the plan!

Jane is dishing some good advice above. Yes, when compared to some of the first year accolades a team can receive the second year can sort of seem like a "sophomore slump". From what I've been through with this past year being my team's second year, it is helpful to establish some attainable goals that you can always hang your hat on.

Also remember, if things aren't always going to plan you can always revisit and revise your goals. There is no problem with this. If for some reason your team finds yourself not having fun, take a step back and look at what is happening as a group. FIRST may be a lot of work, but it is not work (a job).

Nate

[Bob Steele]

I have been through this with several different teams...
the suggestions above have been excellent... I won't try to repeat any of that fine advice.

I am only going to address the idea of passivity on a team...

We have gone from 18 members on our team in our Rookie Year... to over 50 members on the team this past year...I believe we had more passive members in our 2nd year than any other... and we addressed it by setting goals and putting people in jobs.

We have a pretty intense team... in fact some of the members of our school have referred to us as a "cult" rather than a team...
I many ways.... I kind of like that...

To get students involved you have to have things for them to do.
Even 16 students is too many to work on the robot...you have to find other endeavours...

I would suggest finding out what some of your passive members are interested in.... and then brainstorm activities the same way you probably brainstormed the design of your robot.

Use what you learned....

Every year we have all students do two things at the end of the season.
The have to write a short description of "Lessons Learned"
These are both positive and negative things that they learned or they think the team has learned.

These items can be used to great advantage...

The 2nd thing we do is have student write a memoir... this describes in their own words what happened to them during the season...

I have these for 4 years now and they are very valuable to show a student how far they have come...

Planning activities as simple as all going outside for a soccer game or a game of frisbee... can lead to better relationships and team members feeling like they are more part of the team...

You don't always have to concentrate on learning things that are about having a better robot...
As a coach I am much more concerned about making team members (and mentors) better people... or at least more knowledgeable people...

We have a pretty good team.... but it isn't about the robot...
We are good because we care about each other... and when you join the team you join the family.... the SKUNK family.... everyone is valuable...
We also care about other teams and other people... we like helping and giving... It is actually pretty selfish on our part... we like giving and helping because it makes US feel so good to do it...

Everyone wants to have value.... show them you care about them...
show them you like having them on the team.... help them understand that they have value to the team....

Do this... and I PROMISE.... you will have more fun and your team will prosper in ways you can't imagine.

thanks!! Good luck we hope to see you on the field sometime...

Robert Steele/Head Coach/ "The Skunkfather"
alleged 'cult of the skunk leader'...

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

Use what you learned....

Every year we have all students do two things at the end of the season.
The have to write a short description of "Lessons Learned"
These are both positive and negative things that they learned or they think the team has learned.

These items can be used to great advantage...

The 2nd thing we do is have student write a memoir... this describes in their own words what happened to them during the season...

I have these for 4 years now and they are very valuable to show a student how far they have come...

And this type of documentation can be a great jumping off point for both the Regional Chairman's Award entries and for essays required for scholarships, awards (including the new Dean's List Award) and college applications.

[yarden.saa]

There are many good ideas so I wrote them on a list.

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

thanks!! Good luck we hope to see you on the field sometime...

Robert Steele/Head Coach/ "The Skunkfather"
alleged 'cult of the skunk leader'...

May be just in the championship our only regional is israel regional

[Dale]

Team 1540, the Flaming Chickens, have always had a certification process and hours requirement in order to qualify for the competition team.

In the fall students earn certifications in various areas i.e. Fabrication, Design, Software, Electronics, Marketing, etc. The certifications come in levels with Level I being fairly easy to earn in a week or so after school whereas Level IIs and IIIs might require a month or so. Anyone is welcome to join in the fall.

To be on the competition team starting January 1st, students need to have logged at least 50 hours over the course of the fall and have earned at least a level II certification in at least one discipline. We do all this because our team's robot is entirely student designed and built which means we need the skill base to pull it off.

Usually we have around 25-30 students (out of a high school of 285) in the fall. Normally all but a couple qualify for the competition team because the expectations are known to all up front.

Once the competition season starts, students must log at least 50 additional hours over the course of the 6 week build season. Many log many times that amount, of course. Putting more effort into the build season also puts students in line to be a department manager in future years. We're looking at a higher hour requirement in order to attend the Championships should we qualify as we have the last four years.

Our certification requirements get tweaked each year but last year's can be found at http://www.team1540.org/departments . You'll notice reference to the BunnyBot competition throughout. That's a FRC-like competition we invent each year for local teams that we all use as a warm-up exercise for the build season. Details on last year's competition is at http://www.oregonfirst.org/regional-...bot-scrimmage/