How to keep new students entertained?

[3195mentor]

I am the lead mentor / Instructor for the RoboNinjas, team 3195. This is only my second year of running this program for the school and would like the input of veteran team members, as well as fellow mentors and instructors on this subject:

- How do you keep your students entertained during the pre-season?
Mind you, this is only our second year so we do not have that much in the way of funding, or in the way of previous robots to let the new students build with. What do you suggest as activities to get them involved with robotics and keep them actively engaged (aka - NOT BORED!)

Thanks,

Jason
Lead Mentor of Team 3195

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by 3195mentor

Mind you, this is only our second year so we do not have that much in the way of funding, or in the way of previous robots to let the new students build with.

I'd start with fundraising. There are many fundraisers that can do double duty as fun activities to engage new and old students while earning you money or sponsorship. Public demonstrations for sponsors, selling concessions at a sports game, and "drive the robot" demos are all cool events that can be really fun for new students. One of my first memories on 1714 was letting some younger kids drive a little robot at a Vex demo, and it was definitely really fun and engaging to help other kids play with robots. From there, you should be able to get enough funding to work on a little pre season project.

[GaryVoshol]

Entertained is not the word you want. Enthused, active, productive, inspired - try those on for size.

I disagree somewhat with Chris on fundraising. New students who don't know much about the program won't be good ambassadors for your team in seeking funding. When the businessman or -woman being approached asks, "What good things has your team accomplished?", you'd better have a good answer! They can be involved in some outreach efforts, but you certainly need to have experienced students on hand to answer questions.

Education is a better pre-season approach. Certify the new students on the use of power tools. Teach one or two how the robot is programmed, how the sensors work. Explain drive train options - this works really well if you have 2 or 3 old robots to compare/contrast.

[NickE]

VEX and FRC Workshops.

VEX is a great program and allows students to build robots with little to no experience coming in. Our vex team has no mentors and is completely student-run, allowing the students to learn through discovery and experimentation.

FRC workshops are a great way to get people trained for the busy build season. Try to make the workshops as interactive as possible in order to keep students interested.

Note: these are only the robot-related tasks that can happen in the pre-season. Other tasks such as outreach, graphic design, animation, publication-writing, finance planning, teambuilding, etc. are extremely important as well and the pre-season is a great time to get started on them.

[Karibou]

Training and fundraising usually bring teams together pretty well in the off-seasons. Both definitely need to happen, so why not use both activities to keep kids engaged? Instead of, say, having kids go out and sell HexBugs to their friends and family on their own, get them to bake things and sell them at a local market, where they can interact with each other. New recruits will learn about the team very quickly when people ask about the team, and the veteran students respond with similar information each time. And since you're still a pretty new team, there isn't any extensive history that the new students would need to know in order to explain what the team has done.

I would also suggest including some generally fun events to bring the team together; ones that have nothing to do with the robot. Go out and play Laser Tag. Have a LAN party in someone's basement. Play a game of baseball at a local park. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. It's things like these that will forge friendships that don't just exist at robotics meetings, but during the school day as well.

[KathieK]

Hopefully you're planning teambuilding exercises - short ones at the beginning of every meeting, longer ones or a half/whole day scheduled for the early fall once your student recruiting efforts are finished.

Training is really important, as others have already stated. Many teams use FTC as a way to get new students involved and for teaching purposes also.

Give new students responsibilities to get them engaged. Have them look at last year's kickoff/game manual and ask how they would play the game/design/build the robot. Then have the veteran team members explain why they made the decisions they made last January and asses how successful they were.

Take apart last year's robot and rebuild it!

[Cheerleader1073]

Although there have been disagreements, with good thinking attached, I actually agree about the fundraising. I'm not about to list all the ways our team has brought in funds over the years since I'm sure you could find that information by searching it - even probably in a thread in CD - but all of them involve the team working together. I was head of the business team on our team last year and will be one of our two captains this year so from my experience there really is no 'off-season' to FIRST - it's a year-round activity. When it's not build season and competition season there should be meetings for training (we call ours "Robot U"), larger fundraising activities, community work towards Chairman's, attending or hosting workshops, and of course FUN!... go to the movies as a team, play lazer tag, go out to dinner! The summer's almost over now so this would be for next year, but when school's out that's the best time to get a lot accomplished since everyone has their time freed up.

Hope this helps and good luck!!

-Gen

[Dale]

There's really nothing quite like building a robot, even a simple box on wheels. Here in Oregon we host the BunnyBot pre-season competition each fall. Last year's game can be seen at http://www.oregonfirst.org/regional-...bot-scrimmage/ . This year's game comes out September 11th. For BunnyBots we invent a new, simple game to be played with FRC-class robots on Saturday Dec 18th. Students learn a ton and some say it's more fun than FRC because the pressure-to-fun ratio is more tilted towards fun and newer members have a greater role.

San Diego has such a great community of teams you could probably get something similar going down there. If that's too much to take on, just have new members build something FRC-like and drive it around the school. You'll be amazed in the difference in energy level of those folks. I'd take apart last year's robot if need be to make it happen...I'm such a big fan of having a pre-season robot project.

[RyanCahoon]

Originally Posted by Dale

There's really nothing quite like building a robot, even a simple box on wheels.

My experience mostly agrees with Dale on this one. You have to separate offseason activities into things that we need to do and things that we like to do. Most incoming students will be expecting to build robots ("it is robot club after all"), and so, at least to a certain degree, you have to oblige them. Unlike many of the more established teams, most students at your school will probably not know the total of what goes on in your team (yet they will still think they do), but you don't want to drive them away once you've got them in the door. Your team's job is to grow their enthusiasm in FIRST.

Try delegating responsibility for the have to tasks to veteran team members; since they have been through a season already, they will get why it's critical that you raise $10,000+, and will appreciate the responsibility. This does not mean that you deal them the task and forget them: they still need to know that you are supprting them and that it's ok if they experience failures (cite: JVN).

Another approach is to assign each of the new students to your mentors and the more mature of your veteran students, after talking to the veterans about what this means for them. Think apprenticeship program.

In regards to education, this can be a valid exercise, but needs to be implemented correctly. In my experience, if you (or your mentors, or ...) lecture at the students for more than a meeting or so, the students will start to wonder why they've signed up for another class. Some may like this, but there's a good chance many won't. Try the one-on-one (or up to about one-on-three) approach instead.

Specific ideas: Try having the some kids work on CAD (if you know it) as all this requires is access to a computer lab and they can create as many designs as they want. Having some sort of hands-on activity is critical, though, as many students (esp. freshmen) will not have the patience for CAD. VEX has also been mentioned, which is excellent if your team has $700-$1000 to spend on it (I believe this is about the price range actually needed). Also, try asking veteran teams in your area if they have any extra parts and material you could use if you can't afford your own (no matter what type of robot you build). Try to stay away from some of the more crafty hobby kits that are available or more DIY-type projects, as they usually require a fair amount of precision to get working and if you have a whole room of kids competing for your assistance, neither they nor you will be happy.

Also, try to find an offseason FRC competition near you. These are great ways for new students to get a feel for FIRST before the season starts.

--Ryan

[3195mentor]

Originally Posted by RyanCahoon

My experience mostly agrees with Dale on this one. You have to separate offseason ...

Great suggestions, I will try to implement some of those ideas for this year

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!)

[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.

[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!