Morgan Here! in 2025, I have the opportunity to Coach an FLL Challenge team. This is where I will be putting my informaiton on what I did for each of the practices to hopefully develop into a good curriculum. This is a DRAFT and made like a journal. Coaches are welcome to reference this and in the future, will be used to write a fleshed out curriculum.
Learn Teammates/Get Aquainted
Learn the four aspects of FLL Challenge
Start learning the Missions and Scoring
During this practice, start with having an easy introduction. Name, and one thing they like or want to know more about regarding the season theme. The Coach starts, and then they can go around the circle for each person. Generally straightforward.
The four aspects are the Core Values, Robot Design, Robot Missions, and Innovation Project.
What we are working towards. In this program, we are working towards ONE competition. Here this will be the only oppotunity for teams to get a chance at the State Championship. At the competition, we are judged (by judges) on four things. Each of the four things counts as 25%.
Core Values: The Core Values are the six specific Core Values of FIRST - Inclusion, Innovation, Teamwork, Impact, Discovery, and Fun. The judges will be watching how you use each of these core values at the competition and throughout your presentation. They will also be looking at your use of Gracious Professionalism - respecting your opponents, doing high quality work, and competing like crazy.
Robot Design: First I asked them, have you ever built something and it was as perfect it could ever be? No - it's important to refine what we do. We can continuously make the things we do better - that is called the Engineering Design Process. The judges will also want to know the process in which you completed your robot design. They will want to know what changes you made, why you made them, how you improved on what you were doing throughout the season. They will want to see it in your programming and throughout your attachments for the robot.
Robot Missions: You will have the opportuntity to do about THREE robot missions at the competition, and they will take your highest score. These are the 15 missions that we find on the table.
Innovation Project: This is an invention project based on the theme for this year. We will research about the theme, learn about problems that might not have a solution, and work on developing a solution or invention. This will be presented to Judges too. Its important that we continue to revise our Innovation project too - just like for the robot design.
Tips for Leading this conversation: I would start with one, and go through it. I would then ask one of the students to summarize what I said. Then I would ask, "what is the first thing you will be judged on". Then I would go on to the second item, discuss, have them summarize, and then ask: "What is the first thing, what is the second thing." etc until they can say all four.
Divide and Conquer: The team is split into two groups of four. Each group receives a copy of the official rulebook and gets to choose one mission from the competition table.
Rulebook Research: Using only the rulebook, each group must thoroughly analyze their chosen mission. Their task is to understand the mission's objective and determine the specific criteria for scoring points. They should focus on identifying key phrases, diagrams, and point values within the rules.
Team Presentations: Each group presents their findings to the larger team. They explain what they believe the mission's goal is and how points are awarded. This presentation serves as a test of their comprehension and their ability to communicate complex information.
On-the-Spot Quiz: After they present, they are quizzed on the details of their mission. This includes questions about the names of specific mission parts, scoring criteria, and any unique rules or exceptions. The group's performance is then graded out of 5 for correctness and clarity.
Review and Refine
Official Reveal: After both teams have presented, the group watches the official missions video for each of the two missions on an iPad. This provides a visual confirmation of the correct mission and scoring.
Group Discussion: As a whole group, the teams discuss what they saw in the video compared to their initial interpretation. This is a crucial step for correcting any misunderstandings and deepening their knowledge of the rules.
Interactive Quiz: The session leader facilitates a rapid-fire, interactive quiz. For example, they might ask, "How many points is this?" while performing a related motion, or "What is this called?" while pointing to a specific part of the mission. The entire group responds at once, reinforcing key information through repetition.
Repeat the Process: The team is then split into new pairs, and the entire process is repeated with new missions until all missions on the table have been thoroughly reviewed and understood.
Tips for Leading: Before quizzing, have the kids come up with a team name on the spot quicky. When revealing who "won" have the kids do a drumroll. You can split them into smaller groups and have it be 4 teams. Then when revealing the winner have them do a drumroll before announcing.
We had an awesome first day! The kids should be able to tell you about the six missions we learned, and the four aspects we will be judged on.
About FLL Challenge:
Our theme this year is UNEARTHED. In this season's emails there may be videos, homework assignments, and other activities for you to complete with your child. Some items might be able to be completed on their own, but some may need parent support to be completed.
The Lancer-Bot-Mania tournament this year is tentatively November 22nd and it is a Full Day Event. We start at 7:30am and closing ceremonies are at 5pm. The tournament consists of the Robot Game which the parents can watch. The Innovation Project Presentation and Robot Build Judging are closed sessions.
The Innovation Project is a solution to a problem that they have researched about archaeology and developed a solution for.
The Robot Design portion will ask them about their development of the robot and the code.
The judges will also take note of their ability to demonstrate Core Values to each other and other teams.
We watched UNEARTHED Robot Game Missions Video today. This is a video that describes all the missions for the Robot Game. At the tournament we will be scheduled to run our robot 4 times. On each run our robot will attempt to complete as many missions as possible in 2.5 minutes.
Assignment for Next Wednesday:
1. Watch the below videos.
UNEARTHED Career Connections - YouTube
2. Research what an archeologist does, and bring some information about what archaeologists do.
*If your child ever goes a little off topic while researching - maybe they really want to research what items archaeologists find - that is totally fine!
3. Watch the UNEARTHED Robot Game Missions Video and rewatch each mission maybe two or three times.
The goal: they understand how the robot interacts with the model, and understand the basics of scoring. They do not need to know the specifics, but rather "You get more points if you do x"
Tips: Turn it into a game - quiz them after watching the video, and give them points if they can get it correct!
We will be starting this year with a pre-built robot because of the limited time before competition. We will make some changes to the robot as the season progresses and as needed. I encourage kids to research attachments and bring ideas to meetings!
Research Note: Kids are required to note who they get ideas from. We are allowed to copy ideas, but we must give them credit for the design we are using. This could be a Youtube Username, a website - something that credits the original creator.
If you have any questions please send me an email.
Thanks for encouraging your student to participate in the FLL Challenge this year. It will be a great and rewarding experience for them!
REVIEW - Four Aspects and Missions we know
Finish learning the Missions and Scoring & Review the entire table
Quiz the group on the content covered in the previous day - the four aspects of FLL Challenge, and the missions that were reviewed.
Continuing with the same structure as the previous day, have the students finish all of the missions, quizzing them and making sure they understand them all.
Then, have the entire team answer the questions for each of the missions. "How many points is this *complete movement*", "What is this part called?", "What is the name of this mission?", etc. until they can all say all the answers.
To help with solidifying each of the missions, the students take a blank piece of paper to write about the mission with the following sturcture:
Total Number of Points Possible: ##
Step 1: motion for step 1, total points
Step 2: motion for step 2, total points
Step 3: motion for step 3, total points
Students then identified which missions were similar that they could do together. Maybe step 1 and 2 were a left and right motion, then step 3 was completely different - this will come into play later.
On the Spot Quiz
Program PB&J
Finish Mission Sheets
Start first programming lesson
Because it had been almost a week since the team met, we started with asking questions about the different missions and scoring points. The goal is to have all of the students understand all of the missions. We also went over all the 4 judging aspects and quizzed them on that.
In this activity, students will attempt to ”program” the instructor to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Begin by instructing the group to collaboratively write down instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A time limit of about 5 minutes is appropriate. With the instructions in hand, tell the class that you are a computer and that you are going to follow their instructions. Proceed by interpreting the instructions in the most literal manner possible.
For example:
1. Take a slice of bread
2. Put peanut butter on the slice
3. Take a second slice of bread
4. Put jelly on that slice
5. Press the slices of bread together would result in you taking a slice of bread, putting the jar of peanut butter on top of the slice, taking a second slice of bread, putting the jar of jelly on top of that slice, then picking up both slices of bread and pushing them together. After this tell the students that their peanut butter and jelly sandwich doesn’t seem quite right and ask for a new set of instructions.
After doing the initial activity, I then asked the students if they wanted to try again, but this time telling me the directions. Doing this, they refinded what they were saying collaboratively to make them more precise. I followed the directions very literally still - like when they said "now squish the pieces of bread together", I proceeded to squish the sandwich into the table.
After this, we had a conversation about how programming works - that the robot is only as "smart" as the person writing the program. It will follow the directs literally and if something isn't going right, that means we need to look at the program and determine where we went wrong.
Have the students finish the mission sheets from the previous practice. There should be one page for each mission.
As a team, go through the Spike Prime programming lessons -> Open App, Open Spike Prime, Start, Unit 1
We went through all of the different programming lessons to help give them an introduction to the concepts of programming.