1. Teacher-Mentor Training Workshop Team Organization Overview

2. A BEST Team Defined Teacher Organization Recruitment Financial
more teachers!
students
mentors
Financial
Fundraising
Travel Planning
Safety
Teachers
Teacher

3. A BEST Team Defined President/CEO Team Leaders Webmaster “Rules Guru”
Robotics
BEST Award
Webmaster
“Rules Guru”
Fundraisers
Team Members
Students

4. A BEST Team Defined Mentors Shop/tool safety!!! Construction Foreman
Planning & scheduling
Engineering Design Process
Compliance enforcer

5. Pre-Competition Planning
“What have I gotten myself into?”
Acceptance vs. Expectation
Accept the fact that BEST is overwhelming the first year
Expect confusion and setbacks
No matter what happens, do not quit; see it through
Quitting is unacceptable. Not having a fully-functioning robot is, however.
Panic vs. Pacing
You won’t panic if you’ll plan your work and work your plan!
Pre-Kick Off
Do fun team-building exercises to get students ready to work
“Failing Forward”—create an environment where all ideas are encouraged and failure leads to success

6. Pre-Competition Planning
Working with Mentors
Recruit from local industry, Rotary, PTO
Mentors do not have to be engineers!
Meet at least a week prior to Kick Off Day for strategizing how to organize, plan, and work with the team
Define duties and expectations – yours vs. theirs
Set up a weekly team work schedule
Working with Other Teachers
Do not do this by yourself!
Enlist other teachers to help with BEST Award
Oral Presentations—Speech & English teachers
Exhibit—Art & Drama teachers
Robotics—Career Tech/Shop/VoTech teachers

7. Working with Students Pre-Kick Off Recruitment Pre-Kick Off Planning
Host an orientation meeting at least a week before Kick Off
Suggestion: show the videos posted on the BEST website; other videos can be found on YouTube
Go over Robotics and BEST Award (what’s involved)
Sign-up students by interest areas, but don’t let students take on too much (i.e., Robotics and the BEST Award)
Based on turn-out, determine if BEST Award is feasible
Pre-Kick Off Planning
Introduce mentors and define what their role
Go over weekly work schedule
Discuss team member expectations and responsibilities
Plan for team travel to Kick Off Day

8. Organize Your Team(s) Create an Engineering/Manufacturing Firm CEO
In charge of meetings, overall team effort
Assists teacher as needed
Suggestion: have mentors/teachers interview and appoint; do not make this by popular vote of the students!
Division Managers
Engineering and BEST Award
Each division has separate and distinct jobs
Other officers
Procurement (materials mgmt.) Human Resources
Compliance (game & kit rules) Fundraising
Webmaster Documentation (Notebook)

9. Organization Chart Example
Executive Board (Mentors/Teachers)
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Webmaster
Procurement
Documentation
Compliance
Fundraising
Human Resources
Engineering Division
BEST Award Division
Director
Director
Team Leaders
CAD, Electrical, Computer Programming, and Mechanical*
Team Leaders
Oral Presentation, Exhibit, Spirit, and Community Awareness
* Some teams organize by chassis, extender arm, gripper, power, which may depend upon interest and number of available students. Breaking down the robot by sub-teams is a good way to get more students actively involved