So my fellow leads and I of the mechanical team on our team want to do something more fun and laid back but still robotics related (and Christmas related would be awesome too)at our last meeting before Christmas break and we were having a hard time coming up with anything. We have two hour meetings so try to keep the suggestion able to be done in that time period. We are already bringing in some treats for our subteam. So we are open to pretty much anything otherwise. Thanks from team 930s Mechanical Team and Merry Christmas
P.S. For our normal meetings we usually do some sort of training things on tools, CAD, or things they should know(wheels, drivetrains, and motors to name a few). Which isn’t the funnest thing in the world for the other members of the team.
If you’ve got some spare cash, a VEX kit or two are great for laid-back robotics-related activities. If not, try building small robots out of any odds and ends you can find in your shop.
Our team used FTC parts and we split up into groups of 3 and we all had to build a small robot that completed a task and our mentors judged them. My group built a miniature t-shirt cannon (and we won). This gives everyone a little practice designing a robot and everyone has fun at the same time. Having a small competition within your team is always fun.
A fun laid back meeting we do every year is a jeopardy night. We put together a board full of robotics related questions, and one of our mentors chucks candy at students when they give correct or interesting answers.
It’s fun to load the boards with questions about FIRST along with team specific trivia. It also helps to have a mix of questions and not just a single subject so that the programming team learns about what the mechanical team is doing, etc. We at Team 900 believe in the grand unified theory of FRC and try to teach all of our students all of the things. We also believe in Jibbers Crabst (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ_BtZ-5O60).
Our team did a fantastic activity created by team 2642, The Pitt Pirates. It’s called Robox sumo, and information about it can be found on their website.