How to keep new students entertained?

[3195mentor]

Originally Posted by Dale

There's really nothing quite like building a robot, even a simple box on wheels. Here in Oregon we host ...

Yes, the "Team San Diego" Devil Duckies used to host the "Battle at the Border" event at their highschool's gym, however since the last wildfires they have yet to restart that event. Unfortunately we are too young of a team and not well known enough to host such an event, though I love the idea!

[3195mentor]

Originally Posted by Cheerleader1073

Although there have been disagreements, with good thinking attached, I actually agree...

Gen,

Thanks for the ideas, I had completely forgotten about the chairman's award! I also like the idea of calling the off-season "Robot-U", mind if I borrow this?

[IKE]

A lot of great advice posted above. I would also suggest a couple quicky design challenges. These tend to be 30 minute challenges, but typically take about 1 hour to hand out materials and measure "winning" criteria. Marhsmallow tooth-pick towers are a good starter on these. Very simple and cheap. The idea is to promote small group collaborative effort. 4 is an ideal number of students and they have to find consensus without the "vote" option.
There are lots of other cheap mini-challenges like this and I can send you a link to some of my favorites.

[3195mentor]

Originally Posted by IKE

A lot of great advice posted above. I would also suggest a couple quicky design challenges...

I would love to get that link. If you could post it in here that would be great (incase any other mentors with similar questions / issues come across this thread)

thanks!

[EricH]

With regards to fundraising, pair up experienced students with new students when you do it. The experienced student can offer what the team has done; the new student can observe and offer what they think the team is about.

The same goes for all the other things. Pair up veterans with rookies in whatever ratio is appropriate. Rookies learn. Veterans learn better (nothing like teaching something to learn it!).

Another great idea: Take any random old FRC game and sit all the students down in groups. Their objective: develop a strategy and design a robot to win the game. No, they don't have to build it, but it would have to be buildable. (Would also work with FTC and VRC games. Caution: before 1999, FRC games tended to be 1v1v1.) When January rolls around, the entire team benefits as they do the same thing. You could also develop your own game, but that might be a bit crazy.

[fuzzwaz]

Although a lot of FIRST is about the learning of science and engineering, we tend to use our Off-Season to spread the FIRST message to the community, but spread a different message within the team. Right when the school year starts we begin to train our new members in safety and some basics like CAD and electrics but the summer is a lot different. In our school we are considered as sport, and as a sport we hold a responsibility to act as a team: a group of people who come together to achieve a certain goal (or multiple goals). We try to spend our summers doing activities that bring us closer together as a team. Cheering on runners at our annual triathlon, or team soccer games/picnics. This gives opportunities for the older leaders of the team to really share experiences/memories with the younger members.

-There is nothing more gratifying than watching you robotics team succeed as a family rather than just a group of people when those 6 weeks begin. My advice would be to try to forge that family.

[Jared Russell]

Challenge -> Design -> Build -> Play

That is the FRC modus operandi, and it's why "we" are all entertained. The sooner a student gets to experience all of these steps, the sooner they are "hooked". Off-season building (even a box on wheels), whether FRC or even FTC, Vex, or FLL, will let new students experience the payoff of their hardwork early, and inspiring them to continue further.

[RyanCahoon]

Originally Posted by 3195mentor

also, nice sig-pic, I remember the scene it was from, however i can't recall the name of the movie it was from! (D'OH!)

Thanks, that's my buddy Gune from Titan A.E.

Originally Posted by IKE

Marhsmallow tooth-pick towers are a good starter on these. Very simple and cheap. The idea is to promote small group collaborative effort. 4 is an ideal number of students and they have to find consensus without the "vote" option.
There are lots of other cheap mini-challenges like this and I can send you a link to some of my favorites.

For a bunch of cool science-y statistics and experience on the marshmallow towers, check out this TED video from Tom Wujec (an Autodesk guy, it so happens); he's a fantastic speaker.

--Ryan

[IKE]

I think the link for design projects was:
http://pbskids.org/designsquad/

[KrazyCarl92]

Team 20 is looking into participating in a local Vex competition this year that would run from about September to December, with the idea being that more experienced students could be team mentors for the newer students in an almost entirely student constructed build that would not interfere with the FRC build or kickoff. Other good things to do would be to offer new students the opportunity to tag along on community outreach and robot demo events. We are also going to try a new idea, bringing new students along with the team to an offseason event in the fall to give the whole team a feel for what a FIRST competition experience is like (if that doesn't give them reason to stay interested in FIRST, it might be for them). It's more about inspiring new student as opposed to entertaining them. The sooner students get a feel for where they belong on the team and in the FIRST community, the sooner they can begin having a fun and enriching experience.

[CENTURION]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this:

Look around and reach out to local engineering companies or machine shops. We have the good fortune of living in the same city as a great company known as Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing Co-op. They specialize automated machinery and construction, which is what we do in FRC, they just work on a lager scale.

We recently took a tour of their workshop with some of our newer students, and it was a great learning experience, as they had some great machinery to show off.

[EricH]

That's actually a good idea for a "Wow, I could end up doing this someday" trip.

Contact your local major engineering place and see if you can get a field trip of their plant. (I know Northrop and a few other aerospace companies have stuff down there, but I'm not sure what else there is or what exactly they do.) Take the entire team. Not only do you get a wow moment, but you can pick up some useful tips if you pay attention.

[Dragon Princess]

Out of season my team has always fund-raised for the team, and has also held 'recruiting' days going out and doing charity events with the robot to show off FIRST.

Any event that had to do with engineering we've tried to become a part of to show the robot off.

At school we've held dances, contests and many ways to get other students interested in joining the teams.

Preseason is also a good time to review the past robot and what went wrong, and also to look for new drive train ideas used by other teams, and to train new team members and check up in software updates.

Also there are many pre and post season events to go to.

[Brandon Holley]

Tons of good advice here already, but I'll just add a pretty broad rule we tend to follow.

Keep it exciting regardless of what you are doing. Some students will find that fundraising, or organizing community outreach events is very fun, while others will be drawn to the design/building/testing of the robot. Its important to stress that everyone should be involved in every aspect to some degree. When this happens you will inevitably be putting someone in position they feel is "less fun" as something else on the team. The challenge as mentors, especially when it comes to new recruits, is to design the activities so it leaves the students coming back for more.

[efoote868]

Teach them how difficult programming can be?

Grab a large gymnasium, fill it with cones and other random objects, and blindfold some old members. Let the new members direct the old members from one end of the gym to the other, without touching any of the random objects.

Then let the old members direct the new members. Should keep you entertained for the span of a meeting, excellent team building.



EDIT: as an added bonus, you could force the controller to stand in a fixed position, a driver's station