Illinois Coaches Meeting

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Illinois Coaches Meeting

• CLIMATE CONNECTIONS
• September 23, 2008

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Agenda

• Introductions
• New This Year
• National or State?
• FLL Values
• Communications and Fee Payment
• Key Dates
• Judging
• General review of how judging will take place at
  regionals and state
• Scoring and Feedback
• Regional Tournaments
• How regional tournaments will be run
• Requirements to participate in a regional
• How regional assignments will be made
• Awards and Judging
• Who goes to the State tournament
• State Tournament
• When and Where
• Awards
• Review of Table Elements

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INTRODUCTIONS
Planning Committee Members Charlie Schmitz FLL
Partner, INScite Board Cynthia Schmitz FLL
Partner Tom Kleinschmidt INSciTE Board, State
Tournament set-up Bob Hubberts INSciTE Board,
Coordinator of State Tournament Chris
Sattler Technical Guru Diane Michalczuk Head
Judge Advisor, Administrator Brian Gravelle Head
Referee Ron Karabowicz Mentoring, assists with
State Tournament
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INTRODUCTIONS Regional
Tournament Coordinators

• Batavia Ron Karabowicz
• Champaign/Urbana (2) Minosca Alcantara
• Chicago McDade Daniel Perry
• Chicago Taft Derrick Connor
• Chicago UIC Rich Levey, Kathy Tomaras
• Crystal Lake Mike Gaynor
• Harvard Mimi Book
• Lake Forest Mark Arthur
• Lake Zurich Dave April
• Mount Prospect Cathy Jones-Endres
• Palatine/Quest Rich Levey
• Peoria (3) Bruce Stott, Prasad Parupalli
• Rockford Mark Anderson
• Streator Pam Riss
• Waukegan Dennis Bade

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New This Year

• Renewed emphasis on FLL Values
• No scores or rankings
• Teamwork judging changes at State
• Teams will be asked to perform a task during the
  judging interview
• Teamwork will be judged on Friday evening and
  Saturday morning in the same fashion as Technical
  and Challenge Project judging

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National or State?

• National Organization FIRST (For Inspiration
  and Recognition of Science and Technology)
• Creates the What and the Why
• Creates the annual challenge (Table Performance
  Research Project)
• Sets rules and standards for participation and
  tournaments.
• National Registration (200)
• Provides training, documentation tools to state
  tournament partners.
• Registered IRS Educational Non Profit
  Organization 501(c)3 headquartered in New
  Hampshire.

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National or State?

• 2. State Organization INSciTE Illinois
  (Innovations in Science and Technology Education)
• Provides coordination between national and state
  programs
• Organizes the regional tournaments
• Organizes the state tournament
• State Registration provides IL FLL support and
  tournament series (65)
• Maintains web site to promote communication on
  FLL topics (www.insciteillinois.org)
• Provides scholarships (financial, materials, or
  both) for underrepresented youth with a financial
  need
• Provides training for coaches
• Registered IRS Educational Non Profit
  Organization 501(c)3.

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FLL Values

• Renewed emphasis on FLL Values this year
• Respect each other in the best spirit of teamwork
• Behave with courtesy and compassion for others at
  all times
• Honor the spirit of friendly competition
• Act with integrity
• Demonstrate gracious professionalism
• Focus on the experience and not the awards
• Remember that children do the work
• Encourage others to adopt these values

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FLL Values Contd

• Gracious professionalism can and should mean
  different things to each of us. It is possible,
  however, to outline some of its meanings
• Gracious attitudes and behaviors are win-win.
• Gracious folks respect others and let that
  respect show in their actions.
• Gracious professionals make a valued contribution
  in a manner pleasing to others and to themselves
  as they possess special knowledge and are trusted
  by society to use that knowledge responsibly.

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COMMUNICATIONS

• contactfllillinois_at_gmail.com
• Email address for the state organizing committee
• Yahoo Group
• Tool we use to get information out to all of the
  teams
• Tool you can use to communicate with other teams
  in Illinois

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Fee Payment

• All forms can be obtained at www.insciteillinois.o
  rg
• Payment Options
• By Paypal
• By Credit Card
• By Check
• 65 payable to INSciTE Illinois
• Mail with registration form to PO Box 82,
  Prospect Heights, IL 60070
• Team must be indicated on check!

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Key Dates

• September 30th or sooner
• National registration closes
• Teams can no longer change information on the
  national site
• October 8th New Date!!
• Call-in coaches training on team management
• October 9th
• Web-based NXT training from LEGO Education
• October 15th or 2 weeks after National
  registration closes
• Illinois registration closes
• Teams that have registered in Illinois and paid
  the national and state fees will be assigned to a
  regional competition
• October 31st
• Regional team assignments will be posted on
  INSciTE Illinois website at www.insciteillinois.or
  g.
• Notification of posting will be made to the Yahoo
  Group

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Judging Criteria

• Judging will be conducted in accordance with the
  information contained in the Coaches Handbook

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Feedback

• FIRST has directed that teams should receive
  feedback and not scores or quintile rankings at
  any state or regional tournaments.
• A new scoring system will be trialed at the State
  Tournament (trialed at World Festival last year)
  which offers improved feedback
• Regional Tournament Coordinators (RTCs) may
  choose to hand out the feedback forms at the end
  of the day or to mail them to teams after the
  tournament.

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Feedback (contd)

• FIRSTs emphasis is to provide feedback on
  strengths and weaknesses based on judged areas
  (rubrics). Scores and rankings not only dont
  provide that detail, but can be misleading, or
  worse yet, demoralizing.
• Judges are required to concentrate on the
  potential award winners and scores of other teams
  may not be updated throughout the day or between
  judging teams.
• One judged award per team philosophy may mean
  the team with the highest score may not receive
  the award.
• Feedback on judged criteria (rubrics) strengths
  and weaknesses can provide more and better
  feedback than to let some teams know that they
  are among the bottom few teams at the tournament.
• For more of FIRSTS thought see
  http//firstlegoleague.org/community/fll/judgeblog
  .aspx

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Regional Tournaments
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How Regional will be run

• Regional tournament coordinators (RTCs) are all
  volunteers
• Approximately 16 teams at a regional provides
  excitement and manageability for RTCs
• Teams may be asked to provide
• A volunteer for the day
• Table and/or table elements

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Participation in Regional tournaments

• Each team must be registered with the FIRST
  national organization(200 registration fee).
• Each team must be registered with INSciTE
  Illinois (65 fee and completed registration
  form) www.insciteillinois.org
• Registration fee covers both regional and state
  tournaments
• Each team must bring a completed waiver/consent
  form for each team member. Team members include
  coaches and any other adults who help the team.
  Teams will not be allowed to participate in their
  regional if a signed consent form is not provided
  at the regional. This will be enforced this year
  without exception.

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Regional Assignments

• Teams select top 3 choices when registering for
  Illinois tournament series
• Teams that have registered first will be given
  priority if a conflict arises.
• Teams should hear from regional tournament
  coordinator by November 15th

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Awards and Judging

• Regional Awards
• Table Performance Award
• Robot Design Award
• Challenge Project Award
• Teamwork Award
• Judges Award (optional)
• A team can win only one judged award plus the
  Table Performance Award

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Awards and Judging contd

• Teamwork
• May be judged in one of 3 ways
• Separately, by a teamwork judge
• In conjunction with technical judging
• In conjunction with Challenge project judging
• Method will be determined by the resources
  available to the regional tournament coordinator.

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Awards and Judging contd

• Judges Choice Award
• This award is given out at the discretion of the
  regional tournament coordinator may not be
  awarded at all regionals.
• Can be given to a team that has not won any of
  the other awards but the judges feel they would
  like to recognize in some fashion.
• May be used to designate a team that has excelled
  in all areas.

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Who Goes to the State Tournament?

• Determined by equal weighting of four major
  categories
• Table performance
• Technical
• Challenge project
• Teamwork
• We aim for the same percentage of teams from each
  regional. The number of teams from each regional
  depends upon the size of the regional. 64 teams
  will advance to the State Tournament.

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State Tournament
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State Tournament

• January 16th 17th
• 64 teams competing
• Location Forest View Field House
• 2121 S. Goebbert Rd.
• Arlington Heights
• Family members and friends are encouraged to
  attend no charge for admittance.
• WildStang Café will be open to purchase food and
  beverages.

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State Tournament - Awards

• Champions Award 1st Place
• Champions Award 2nd Place
• Table Performance Awards
• 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will be awarded.
• Technical Awards
• Robot Design
• Programming
• Innovative Design
• Challenge Project Awards
• Research Quality
• Innovative Solution
• Creative Presentation
• Teamwork Award
• Team Spirit Award
• Rookie-Team-of-the-year Award
• Judges Choice Award

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Additional Judging Info - State

• Technical, Challenge Project and Teamwork judging
  will take place on Friday evening and Saturday
  morning.
• Saturday morning slots are reserved for teams
  that must travel the furthest to participate.
• Teams that must travel more may choose to be
  judged on Friday evening. There are many
  benefits to having the judging sessions completed
  the evening before the matches begin.
• Saturday morning judging will begin as early as 8
  AM.
• Callbacks will be used to determine the final
  winners of the awards. A list of the teams being
  called back will be posted at the tournament. It
  will be the responsibility of the teams to check
  the call back list to determine when and where
  they should present to the judges.

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Rookie Team-of-the-Year Award

• Teams may qualify as a rookie team if all team
  members, including coaches and assistant coaches
  are new this year.
• Rookie teams will be required to register their
  status as a rookie team prior to the State
  tournament. The Head Judge Coordinator will send
  an email out to all registered teams in Illinois
  inviting all rookie teams to register their
  eligibility for this award.
• The winner will be determined by an equal
  weighting of the following
• Table Performance Score
• Technical Score
• Challenge Project Score
• Teamwork Score