Together, we have over 20 to 30 years of FIRST Robotics knowledge. And we feel it’s essential to share it. In this post, we’d like to highlight two events aimed at disseminating our team’s skills and experience to other FIRST Robotics teams, enabling them to build their Robotics repertoires.
Most recently, we mentored over 40 national FLL (FIRST Lego League) members from 12 teams. FLL is a FIRST Robotics program for middle-schoolers; after middle school, FLL members advance to FTC. This transition can be challenging and many FLL teams fall apart due to the high-stress, high-commitment high school environment, along with the burgeoned challenge of FTC. Our goal was to reduce these losses. To do so, we introduced FTC in a fun, engaging manner, sharing our materials, advice, and knowledge, as well as our emails for future questions.
Furthermore, we helped FLL teams build their virtual FLL competition skills through hands-on demonstrations and online practice of team spirit, PITS (engaging with judges and teams), and Core Values (solving a difficult and complex challenge) skills. With COVID, the FIRST competition environment looks very different. We are proud to help FLL teams navigate the new challenges of an online setting.
An exciting moment mentoring FLL teams!
In 2020, we were the only team with odometry. To level the playing field, we hosted a New Hampshire FTC session, explaining our award-winning, efficient Odometry system to over 30 participants, including some of our competitors. We set the foundations for their success, providing our odometry pod CAD, a materials list, and important mathematical calculations. We were incredibly proud of our impact, especially when teams arrived at the competition with strong odometry systems, allowing for incredibly exciting gameplay!
Explaining odometry to a passionate audience!