Category: FLL

FLL District Tournament

Rob

SMH_286Our FLL Animal Allies season is over. We gave it our best shot, but came up short at the University of Akron FLL District Tournament. I am so proud of the team. We managed to score our highest score in the Robot Games. It was our highest possible score with what we programmed our robot to complete. The team was so excited. We also scored much higher on our Core Values judging. Best of all we had a BLAST!

If you have been thinking of creating a team I have just one thing to say. DO IT. Create a team and sign up.

I enjoyed the entire season. I admit that I was a stressed out mess during the judging. These kids worked so hard and I wanted the best for them.

In the end it all payed off. We won a Judges Award. We got to go home with a trophy to display with many others trophies from various teams from the school over the years. For a rookie team, these kids exceeded my expectations.

I can’t wait until next season. I think I’m hooked.

FLL Regional Tournament

Rob

img_4354This past weekend my team, the RoboTigers, competed at the NEOFRA Warren Delphi First Lego League Regional Tournament. I must first say that the team of people who run this particular event hit a homerun! The event was incredible. Everyone was very professional and well prepared.

With that said, if you are thinking about starting a FLL team, here are some things that I learned after my first competition.

  1. Be prepared for a LONG day. (The day was great and busy, but long.)
  2. You get way more points for your presentations than you do for the robot games. (You do have to score high enough in the robot games to move on, but having the highest score doesn’t guarantee you move on to regionals.)
  3. You really need to do well on ALL of the presentations. We focused more on the research project. The other presentations (Core Values and Robot Design) are very important also.

Overall we did great. We didn’t have the highest score, but we were in the top 7 and advanced on to the regionals next month. For a first year team of 4-5 graders who have never programmed a robot before, we did incredible. I am so proud of them!

If you are thinking about starting a team, GO FOR IT! It was a BLAST!

RoboTigers

Rob

robotigerSo a few months have gone by and we have been busy. So busy I haven’t posted about our process. Sorry! I am finding out there are lots to do before our competition on December 10.

If you are considering starting a team I HIGHLY suggest you find yourself a mentor or join an established team with an experienced coach.

Although I did have a coach from another team to ask questions of, I didn’t realize just how much you have to do. I knew about the robot competition and the project, but didn’t realize you have to know and demonstrate how you meet the FLL Core Values. I didn’t realize all the paperwork involved.

With that said, this wouldn’t stop me from continuing to coach a FLL team. I know now that much of the work needs to start day 1 instead of a month before competition.

Overall, the experience was good. One of the Core Values is “We know our coaches and mentors don’t have all the answers; we learn together.” That includes the FLL competition process. The students and I learned a great deal and had a lot of fun in the process.