Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

What a team does each season

• A team forms when enough interested students come together along with two adult coaches (volunteers, usually from parents/guardians of students on the team).  The Anacortes Robotics Booster Club helps teams form by collecting information (pre-registration) and coordinating amongst the interested participants.
• Team meetings are held at least twice per week, for at least 2+ hours at a time (coaches adjust the schedule as needed)
  • Team can start meeting as early as August, and the first (Qualifying) tournament is in December; teams that advance continue to meet weekly to improve and practice
  • Meetings are often held at Anacortes School District facilities, but can be held anywhere parents agree
• Teams meet with experts and go on “field trips” organized by team parents and coaches to help explore the challenge topic using community experts and other resources
•  Team members prepare to compete in four areas:
  •  Core Values – demonstrate knowledge and practice of the FIRST Core Values
  • Innovation Project – show the ability to do fundamental research to understand a problem, apply creative evidence-based scientific thinking to develop a solution to the problem, and present the solution in an informative/entertaining way
  • Robot Design/Build – create a custom-designed and programmed robot to autonomously perform game tasks called missions
  • Robot Game – operate the robot in timed matches where points are awarded for successful completion of the tasks
• Teams compete at day-long Tournaments
  • Every team competes in a Qualifying Tournament
  • Teams with well-rounded competitive performances move up the tournament ladder; Washington has state-level Semi-final and Championship tournaments.

What you (a parent) pay each season

ARBC collects a per-student team “startup contribution” from parents each season on behalf of each sponsored team; the amount is shown on the “Pre-registration” page under “ARBC season details.”  This contribution is not due until a student becomes a team member.  These funds are used to launch the team and is not refundable even if a student stops participating before the end of the season.  Our community (through ARBC) supplies materials, volunteer labor, and obtains grants (where possible) to reduce team expenses in order to minimize this cost.  Scholarships are available for students who qualify for free/reduced lunch.

If your student’s team is a highly competitive team that creates their own uniforms, develops expensive props, or otherwise develops expenses beyond the basic ARBC sponsorship, then you may pay more than the initial startup contribution.

Team expenses each season

The cost to operate an FLL Challenge team for a season starts with team registration fees, acquiring LEGO robotics kits, and paying tournament fees.  A team spends the bare minimum to just register, acquire 1 set of basic equipment, and enter the tournaments.  More competitive teams have multiple robot kits, team uniforms (t-shirts at a minimum), create costumes, add props and models, etc.  ARBC’s team sponsorship gives teams a good start, but competitive teams will incur additional expenses that must be borne by the team through fundraising or additional parental contributions.

The basic cost items are:

• Team registration with the national FIRST organization
•  Seasonal Challenge Set (game mat, mission models, Engineering Notebooks)
• One or more LEGO  robot kits (ARBC loans one kit for every three students to each team)
• Team uniforms (FIRST does not require a uniform – ARBC provides t-shirts to build a basic team identity, some teams develop custom uniforms at their own expense)
• Team tournament registration through the state-wide FIRST Washington organization

A bare-bones “first season” could cost as little as $1,350; a basic medium-sized team’s first season costs around $2,000.  An established team’s basic operating costs can be as low as $500/year in succeeding years because the robot kits are reusable (with lost/damaged parts replaced), but may be higher for competitive teams with bigger ideas.

Roles

FIRST is about more than robots; teams must be well-rounded to do well in competitions.  Coaches help the team decide what roles to use and who fills them on a team.  An informal list of possible roles includes:

• Team Captain/Co-Captains
• Logistics Engineer
• Photographer/Videographer
• Team Historian
• Lead Innovation Project Engineer (Systems Engineer)
• Research Scientist
• Technical Writer
• Lead Robot Design Engineer (Systems Engineer)
• Lead Strategist
• Robot Game Rules Expert
• Robot Game Field Setup Expert
• Robot Builder (Mechanical Engineer)
• Lead Programmer (Software Engineer)
• Programmer (Software Engineer)
• Robot Recovery Manager
• Battery Manager
• Software Version Control Engineer
• Quality Control Specialist

Responsibilities

Team Participation

Student team members are expected to be committed to the success of the team and to participate in all team activities, except where illness or other unexpected events intervene.  Students should notify their  team coaches if they will miss a meeting; multiple unexcused absences may result in a student being restricted from attending a competition.

Fundraising, community service, and community appearances

ARBC expects that students will participate in fundraising events or community events in support of ARBC where it is safe and reasonable at the parent/guardian’s discretion.

Application, registration, and contract

Student must be pre-registered by their parents/guardians to take part in team formation.  Once a team forms, parents/guardians must complete the official on-line FIRST registration for their student.  ARBC uses a Team Membership Token to formalize a student joining a team and trigger an invitation from the coach to the parent/guardian to formally register their student.  Some teams may require each student sign a contract outlining their responsibilities to the team.

FIRST Core Values are cornerstones of the FIRST programs, distinguishing them from others of their kind.  By embracing the Core Values, participants learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals, and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.

• Discovery: We explore new skills and ideas.
• Innovation: We use creativity and persistence to solve problems.
• Impact: We apply what we learn to improve our world.
• Inclusion: We respect each other and embrace our differences.
• Teamwork: We are stronger when we work together.
• Fun: We enjoy and celebrate what we do!

These Core Values should be treated seriously by all team members and coaches; knowledge and practice of them is part of team assessment in tournaments!

Roles

• Coaches – every team needs two adult coaches, usually (but not always) parents of team members.  Coaches lead the teams, but do not need any particular knowledge of robotics or science.  FIRST provides training for coaches as well as a Coach’s Handbook and Team Meeting Guides.
• Mentors – teams benefit greatly from parents who help out by assisting the coaches with organizing students and/or providing speciality knowledge such as mechanical engineering, programming, or general science/engineering.
• Support – teams often need fueling, (snacks), assistance with special projects such as costumes or staging for skits, and other general “help” to unburden coaches. Parents who can’t commit to coaching or mentoring support the team on an “as needed” basis.

Responsibilities

General team support

All parents are expected to work together as a team forms; either to volunteer as coaches and mentors, or to offer their support to the coaches and mentors.  (Helping out with a snack rotation is incredibly useful, for example.)

Transportation

All parents must provide transportation for their student(s) to/from team meetings and other activities including competitions.  Parents are encouraged to seek out other parents whom they trust to form carpools.  Coaches are NOT responsible for any transportation duties.

Field Trips and Competitions

Parents should accompany their student on any field trips or other activities outside of team meetings (if arranged by the coach/mentors), and should attend team competitions to support and cheer for the team.

Volunteering

The FIRST programs and the Anacortes Robotics Booster Club are volunteer-driven and staffed.  Parents will receive calls to volunteer from time to time, and every parent should answer at least one of those calls.  Programs like FIRST robotics only work because of the caring support of many volunteers.

Application, registration, and contract

Parents of student team members are expected to pre-register their students, participate in team formation, ensure the student’s contribution to team startup costs is paid on-time (or a scholarship is requested), help the student fill out and return their Team Membership Token, and complete their student’s official on-line FIRST registration when requested by the coach.

The FIRST mission is to inspire a generation of science and technology leaders who are both gracious and professional.  This FIRST Code of Conduct lists some of the behaviors mentors, coaches, volunteers, team members, affiliate partners, contractors, staff, and other participants should adhere to while participating in FIRST activities.

• Exhibit Gracious Professionalism^® at all times. Gracious Professionalism is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. With Gracious Professionalism, fierce competition and mutual gain are not separate notions.
• Ensure the safety of all participants in FIRST activities.
• Not engage in any form of bullying, harassment, use of profane or insulting language, or any actual or threatened violence.
• Adhere to all FIRST Youth Protection Program (YPP) policies.
• Report any unsafe behavior to event or local FIRST leadership.

Persons who do not comply with this Code of Conduct may be barred from participating in FIRST activities.

If anyone has questions or concerns about behaviors among persons participating in ARBC-sponsored activities/teams, please contact ARBC.

You can help provide an unforgettable hands-on engineering/science research opportunity for students from ages 9 to 14 by volunteering as one of the two coaches required for an FLL Challenge team.  FIRST provides on-line and printed materials to guide you through the basics of coaching through a season.  ARBC provides advice and administrative support to de-mystify the process and let you focus on working with the student team members.  A willingness to learn along with the students is required; no previous experience teaching or in technology is necessary.  Click here to volunteer!

Coaching Principles and Success Factors

• Like many new experiences, guiding an FLL Challenge team through a season may appear daunting at first, but the knowledge and skills you need can be acquired a piece at a time as you go through the season
• As a coach, you must read the seasonal materials put out by FIRST, and you should do so at your earliest opportunity (and repeat as necessary throughout the season)
  • when you have questions about what the materials seek out help as locally/interactively as possible
  • You can raise questions to FIRST or the on-line FLL forums if/when they can’t be answered locally
• Most of the seasonal materials are accessed on-line through the FIRST Inspires website
  • you can read them on-line, or
  • download and print them out (a combination of these seems to work the best)
• As a coach, you must plan enough meeting time to allow the student team members to gain the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to do their best
  • limited team meeting time leads to limited understandings and abilities, diminishing the value of the program as a hands-on experiential learning tool
  • the average team seems to benefit from 2 meetings/week, from 2 to 2 1/2 hours per meeting
  • meeting that run too long can wear team members out, especially younger ones
• The team’s practice environment (game table, mat, and mission models) must be set up exactly as required for the seasonal challenge
  • A robot solution that is successful in an incomplete/incorrect environment will be exactly wrong in the competition environment

The four key aspects of FLL Challenge competition

• CORE VALUES: Learn, understand, and practice the FIRST Core Values:
  • teams will be judged during competitions for the knowledge and demonstration of these attitudes and principles
• INNOVATION PROJECT: Focus student attention on a specific team-identified problem and solve it:
  • solving problems requires acquiring knowledge and using that knowledge constructively
  • The Innovation Project (an engineering challenge exercise) gives teams the opportunity to learn in this fashion
  •  Teams will be judged for their understanding of a problem, their solution to the problem, and their ability to express their solution through a presentation/performance.
• ROBOT DESIGN: Develop solutions to a set of pre-determined robotic missions using a team-designed robot:
  • Teams will be judged for their ability to design, build, and program LEGO robots that perform specific, concrete tasks called “missions”
  • Robot design is evaluated in a judging session
• ROBOT GAME PLAY: Operate the team-designed robot on the playing field to score points by partially or fully completing “missions.”
  • Teams are measured by how many points they can earn while playing the game
  • Robot performance is measured solely by scores achieved during a 2.5 minute Robot Game match (each team plays 3 matches in a tournament, only the best match’s score is used)

Teams are judged for Core Values, the Innovation Project, and Robot Design in a closed door private meeting with a team of judges at a tournament.  The judges use a set of rubrics that are available to all teams throughout the season.  Use the rubrics to help your team judge themselves before they compete in a tournament.

Teams are scored for Robot Performance using the best match score out of three matches that they play during a tournament.  The Robot Game Rulebook is the authoritative source of rules for the robot game.  Updates that clarify the rules are published by FIRST throughout the season.  Remind your team to check for updates regularly, but especially just before going to a tournament.

More details on Core Values, the Innovation Project, and the Robot

Core Values

The FIRST Core Values express the FIRST philosophies of Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition:

• Discovery: We explore new skills and ideas.
• Innovation: We use creativity and persistence to solve problems.
• Impact:  We apply what we learn to improve our world.
• Inclusion: We respect each other and embrace our differences.
• Teamwork: We are stronger when we work together.
• Fun: We enjoy and celebrate what we do!

The Innovation Project

The innovation project requires research and exploration of a domain of human interest (specified by FIRST in the seasonal Challenge), the identification of a problem that exists in that domain, and the creation of a new or refined solution to that problem.  The team must be able to describe (with details and citations) their research (ideally supplemented by guidance from experts found in their own community), the problem that they choose to solve, and their innovative solution to that problem.

The Robot Design and Game

Designing, building, and operating small robots is an excellent way for students to experience and practice an engineering development process through many iterations of a plan/build/test cycle.  Ideas don’t always work right away, and perseverance is required to get things right.  As a coach, you don’t have to start with any specialized knowledge of robotics, but it helps to know some basics:

• Robotics is a blend of mechanical components and programming code; a robot needs both in order to accomplish planned tasks
• Everyone starts small; students and coaches must learn the very basics before progressing to more elaborate structures (both mechanical and code)
• Knowledge of how to use robotics to solve problems comes at first from learning how basic components work through tutorials and experimentation; and later from creative planning, implementation, and testing:
  • Tutorials and experimentation teach the basic functions that are the foundation of solving problems using a robot
  • Experience is gained by repeated action and observation of results
  • Failing is part of learning; encourage students to learn by trying and accepting their failures as part of the learning process

Physical Robot Parts

Robot have four basic types of parts (all of which are provided in the LEGO robotics kits for FLL Challenge teams):

1. Structure (a chassis or body, wheels or tracks for movement, and attachments or manipulators),
2. Sensors (that pick up information from the environment),
3. Actuators (motors that cause the robot to move), and a
4. Processor (a small computer that executes pre-programmed instructions that read the sensors and drive the actuators movement)

ARBC uses community donations and volunteer labor to sponsor teams that are operated either by groups of parents, by private/public schools, or by home-school groups.  ARBC does not directly operate any teams, supply coaches for teams, nor place students on teams.  Community sponsorship for FLL Challenge teams through ARBC includes:

• Facilitating team formation by:
  • collecting information from interested parents/students (pre-registration), and
  • encouraging parents to step forward as volunteer coaches, mentors, and support staff for the students
• Administrative services to let coaches focus on students:
  • collecting per-student contributions to team seasonal startup costs
  • using collected funds to defray the cost of seasonal registrations and simple uniforms (t-shirts)
  • registering teams (national program registration and state-wide tournament registration)
  • coordinating team t-shirt purchases
  • applying for grants (when applicable)
• Loaning LEGO robot kits (approximately one kit for every three team members) to teams each season, and maintaining the kits between seasons
• Advising/consulting with team parents and coaches
• Organizing team participation in community events and fundraising activities 
• Encouraging senior teams to mentor/support junior teams
• Running local scrimmages to help teams prepare for competition

ARBC’s sponsorship of teams covers basic costs of team operation.  The economics of team funding/operation are an important part of the team experience, so coaches should keep student team members aware of their team’s income and expenses and allow them to make economic choices for which they are held responsible.  Depending on team goals, teams may need to acquire additional funding beyond the startup contributions/ARBC sponsorship over the course of a season (additional parental support, team-based fund-raising, other solicitations).

All FLL Challenge teams follow a fixed yearly schedule so that all teams can compete during the Tournament Season.  The busiest time for teams is the Build Season, starting when the yearly challenge is released (beginning of August).  During this time, teams usually meet at least twice per week for at least two hours per meeting.  FIRST robotics is a team sport, so all team members must participate in all team meetings.  Some teams maintain the same meeting schedule all year, while others hold fewer or shorter meetings during the Pre Season.

Pre Season (May – August)

Teams can form and register with FIRST as early as mid-May.  Although the details of the seasonal challenge aren’t known until August, the general topic for the upcoming season is announced by FIRST during the World tournaments the end of April.  Teams can begin researching the topic, get to know the Core Values, and practice building and programming LEGO robots while waiting for the start of the Build Season.

Build Season (August through last Tournament)

Once the yearly challenge is released (the beginning of August), teams practice Core Values,  work on their Innovation Project and begin building and programming their custom LEGO robot.  Full participation by all team members in all team meetings is critical for team success.  For Anacortes teams, here are some dates/deadlines in the build season:

• End of September – all teams must be registered with FIRST
• Mid-November – Oak Harbor Jamboree (sharing/practice with local teams)
• Sunday after Thanksgiving – Anacortes scrimmage (practice tournament)
• Early December – Qualifying Tournaments

Tournament Season (December through last Tournament)

Every team participates in a Qualifying Tournament (December or January) to determine which teams will advance to higher levels of competition.  Team meetings continue to be critical for teams that advance past their Qualifier.  Refinements to the team’s innovation project and robot are made based on feedback from each tournament.  The best teams in the world come together in April for the World tournaments.  Teams that stop advancing often continue to meet and practice throughout the spring in order to improve for the next season.