All Challenge material and resources are located on firstlegoleague.org
Resources:
Designer, http://firstlegoleague.org/challenge/robotgameupdates
FIRST LEGO League Coaches’ Handbook (in registration packet)
Project DVD and FIRST Compilation DVD (in registration packet)
FIRST NEMO (Non-engineering Mentor Organization) www.firstnemo.org
FLL Partner/website for your region of North America – click
on
“US/CAN Contacts” off of http://www.usfirst.org/fll
FLL Forum – place to talk with other coaches, unofficial -
http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/forums
What does a Coach Do?
? HAS FUN!
HAS FUN!
Practice the Coaches’ Promise (pg. i of the Coaches’ Handbook)
Helps the team set realistic goals
o Review your goals during the season. This is a journey and you should
assess it as you go. Celebrate your success as the season progresses.
Facilitates the meetings – keeps things on track (especially
with younger teams or rookie teams).
Encourages the process, the content will come from the team.
o Teach them a successful method to brainstorm, but they will provide
the content.
Ask questions to encourage the team’s thinking and problem solving.
o What are you trying to do
o Is there anything that you can change
o Can you think of another way to solve the problem
Help the team monitor their progress and remind them of the
important dates/time lines (especially with younger or rookie teams).
Administrative responsibilities such as tournament registration.
FLL Core Values and Gracious Professionalism, Very Important
Outlined in the Coaches Handbook (inside front cover and p.
4).
Be sure the team understands the Core Values as well as Gracious
Professionalism.
Review during the season.
o It is about the team – the kids do the work.
o Spirit of teamwork – learning to work as a team.
o Spirit of friendly competition – cheer other teams on, learn from
one another
and have fun together.
o Respect each other and one another’s’ ideas and contributions.
o The journey is important – what you discover is more important than
what you
win.
Overview of the FLL Challenge
What we do (Robot Game and Project) and how we do it (Core Values)
Three (3) parts of the Challenge:
Robot Game – Chapter 5 in Coaches’ Handbook
Project – Chapter 6 in Coaches’ Handbook
Core Values – Chapter 4 in Coaches’ Handbook
FLL Schedule
August: Field Setup Kits begin to ship.
o The team can put together the mission models. Teams will not know
where to
place models until Challenge is released.
o Building instructions are found on the DVD contained with the Field
Setup kit.
o Build your FLL table. Instructions on how to build table are found
on the Team
Resources page on the FIRST LEGO League website
(http://firstlegoleague.org/challenge/teamresources)
August: Read the FLL Coaches’ Handbook and review the Project
DVD and FIRST
Compilation DVD with your team.
o Teams can begin to learn about the theme, brainstorm robot design,
practice
programming.
o Great programming resources are available on the FIRST LEGO League
website,
http://firstlegoleague.org/challenge/teamresources
August 28th: 12 pm ET – Challenge released on FIRST LEGO League.org
website,
http://firstlegoleague.org
o Reference materials will be available.
September/October: Tournament details posted on the FLL website
and possibly your
region’s website. Tournament dates vary from state to state. Be sure
to watch for this
information as registering for the FLL program is not the same as registering
for a
tournament.
o No matter what try to PARTICIPATE IN A TOURNAMENT. Even if you think
you
are not ready. Your team will gain a wealth of experience and may surprise
themselves.
November – February: Local events, qualifiers and championship
tournaments.
o If applicable to your team, enter the FLL Global Innovation Award
(http://fllinnovationaward.firstlegoleague.org)
Sample week by week milestones – p. 102 of the Coaches’ Handbook.
Team Building
Team members need to:
o get to know one another. This is especially important with new teams
or existing teams that add new members.
o feel comfortable with each other so they are willing to share ideas
with each other.
It is important to get the team communicating in a relaxed atmosphere
at first.
Goal – all members should feel part of the team and feel that
their ideas will be listened to and respected.
FLL Core Values and Gracious Professionalism should be emphasized
throughout the season.
HAVE FUN – one of the most important things to team building.
Team building is an ongoing process – it won’t happen in one
or two meetings.
Some meetings you will feel like you have taken two steps forward
and one step backward (or vice versa). Remind them that this is part of
learning to be a team. They need to solve problems when there are differing
opinions. This is an important step for the team to learn.
Team Building Activities
Structured team building activities such as ice breakers and/or
games. Get ideas from books from the library, the internet, or other activities
you have done with school groups, Scouts, etc.
Fun structured activities such as bowling, laser tag, etc.
Non-Structured activities. Fifteen minutes of Frisbee, tag,
or soccer during every meeting can go a long way! Each meeting it is important
to provide a chance for them to have fun in a relaxed way.
Team Spirit type activities during a meeting:
o Picking a team name
o Designing a team shirt
o Writing a team cheer
o Making a team banner
o Building a team mascot
o Making small trading items for the tournaments
o An activity where they write down a strength about each team member.
Makes them realized that everyone is a valuable member.
Review the basics
HAVE FUN!
Review the goals during the season and celebrate as you go.
Remember it is the journey.
Remember it is about the kids.
Remember all the life-long skills they are learning: self confidence,
brainstorming, planning, listening, time management, presentation skills,
being part of a team, making a difference in their community, and doing
the best possible job with limited time and limited resources.
Questions and Answers
IMPORTANT!
Have fun, remember it is the kids doing the work, remember it is the
journey and to go a competition even if you don’t think you are ready –
you’ll be glad you did!
http://fllblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/the-core-values-get-flipped/