Team Goals

A common question we get from rookie coaches and parents is “What is a good set of goals for a rookie team?”     It is hard to say one singular answer as it depends on several factors

Here are some of those factors that impact the team’s goals….

1)  Do the kids already know each other and have a “relationship” of some sort – ie how much work will it be to come together as a team

2) Where is the team meeting?   [Classroom vs house/garage vs community center or other “nonfamiliar” place – so how long does it take to get “into” FLL Challenge work]

3) How familiar is the team with the LEGO technic-style building  [vs brick style]

4) How much programming  (in general) do any of the team members have and how much specific programming with the LEGO NXT robotics kit do any of the team members have.

5) The amount of time that the team is spending focused on FLL

There are other factors as well including ages of the team,  age range between team members, how large the team is, etc

All that said –  what would be some realistic goals for rookie teams?

 

Here are some of the goals we have heard from rookie coaches/teams over the years  –   feel free to add your rookie team goals  (this year as a rookie team or your first year for those experienced coaches) in the comments….

 

A)  Our team wanted to have fun ;  have a robot that could do 3 different types of things in the game and for our project, be able to model it with LEGO blocks

B) Our team wanted to go to a tournament with a robot that could drive out of base and successfully do at least one mission, maybe two.  We wanted to spend time learning from other teams and have a pizza party to celebrate

C) Our team has all older siblings that competed in FLL and we wanted to have a better project presentation and better robot than they had

D)  Our team wasn’t into the robot very much so we had a robot that could do a couple of tasks but not much more.  We really liked our project idea and we did a lot of fun teamwork activities that we did including field trips.

E) Success is wanting to come back and do more next year!