DO hold the competition in a gorgeous gothic building. It adds prestige to the whole thing. I was so delighted to find this amazing gothic campus (City College) right in the middle of Harlem. I confess, I never pictured City College quite like this.
DON'T forget the flash drive. Turns out the average robotics competitor (and perhaps coach) have a relationship to organization not that dissimilar from Jerry: distant. This tends to cause unnecessary last minute stress, though is good for quick thinking on your feet.
DO order team t-shirts, so you are not stuck in the overstock athletic uniforms, though they look cute.
DON'T position your table too near Hunter High School's "Angry Nerds" team (the giant of the robotics team competitions). Their coordinated t-shirts, paraphernalia, and sheer numbers are enough to scare any school, let alone a Bad News Bears type team with only 6 kids.
DO problem solve in the moment and crazy things can happen! When Jerry's robot completed all the challenges it had been programmed to do, he thought on his feet, aimed the robot directly towards a few of the other obstacles, and hoped aiming it straight for it might have some unexpected effects. It did. The team went crazy!
DON'T, whatever you do, hire the DJ they had for this latest competition. Syrupy pop music in the background all day, and kids asked to dance the macarena (trust me, the Robotics kids are NOT the targe audience for this kind of cheesy bar mitzvah type entertainment).
DO go back and try again next year, even if you don't win. Its kind of amazing to see what kind of problems these kids are working out. If we had seen this when we were 12, we would have freaked out.
AZ
Great post, Amy! Congrats to my one & only grandson!
Posted by: G'pa Bob | January 30, 2012 at 09:42 PM