Los Altos Robotics FLL Coaches Training September 14, 2008 Opening Remarks Edmond Macaluso

Today’s instructors have extensive FLL experience Gordon Elder (training organizer): –Coach for 5 years. Team won numerous awards and won NCaFLL tournament in Went to World Festival. Michael Schuh (founder of Los Altos Robotics) –Coach for 8 years in FLL, Botball and helps FIRST High school. –Teams have won numerous awards including NCaFLL in Mike Murray (volunteer coordinator) –FLL coach for several years, team was Los Altos highest performance at NCaFLL last year. Has been a judge at other tournaments. Warren Horowitz (coach) –Coach for 2 years. Team won research project award 2 years in a row in Los Altos and best rookie team at NCaFLL in Edmond Macaluso (board coordinator) –Coach for 2 years. Team finished 8 th in NCaFLL in 2005.

Share the experience All of today’s instructors have made many coaching mistakes –Too much involvement –Not organizing well –Not understanding how kids do things Some seasons go well / some are a challenge –Kids don’t get along / not into it –Robots have a bad day –etc. Kids always get a lot out of it –Enjoy the journey –They learn from success –They learn from mistakes

Summary from last year (from survey) Blach was good, viewing could be better Why judging didn’t seem to match robot performance –Reward teams for more complex bots that may not be as reliable –Reward teams for clever ideas –More difficult challenge will require more advanced bots Why research presentations requirements seem to favor presentations vs content –Dean Kamen wants to celebrate technology - have fun –Presentations are very important in engineering –Rubric describes have clever presentations –Sample presentations from FIRST are this way

Call for help Board recruiting –need your help - will need several new members for next year –give back