IO8: Preparing for the Qualifying Tournament 1: Judging

Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,

In today's FIRST LEGO League Oregon Update we will cover Judging:

1. Three Types of Judging - Commonalities
2. Project Presentation
3. Robot Design - MUST READ FOR ALL TEAMS!!!!
4. Core Values and the Pilot Rubric
5. Practice Makes Perfect

Use this link to read this update as a blog post

  If you are new to this email or blog this is the place where you will find all of the OREGON specific FIRST LEGO League information. If you are in the FIRST Dashboard as a team coach of a registered team for INTO ORBIT you will be added to this list every week for the rest of the competition season. Every update this season begins with IO (Into Orbit) and a number, that number lets you know which update it is, if you miss an update you can find it on our blog.

1) Three Types of Judging - Commonalities

At the Qualifying Tournament in December each team will be assigned 3 judging times. One time will be for each of the judging sessions and they can happen in any order! Your team must participate in all 3 judging activities and the 3 robot table games to be eligible for any awards or advancement from the Qualifying Tournament. Judging makes up 3/4ths of the FIRST LEGO League official experience. 

• All team members must participate in all judging sessions. If you have a team member who is exceptionally shy or has communication challenges make sure you prepare them for judging. Ideas include:
• Having shy or communication challenged student introduce the team to the judges. 
• Having that student show an item, like a poster, robot, or hand out the team information sheet.
• Make sure the team has those team member's back, so that they share their individual contributions to each aspect of FIRST LEGO League even if the student freezes.
• Have them co-present with a more confident team member, so they don't feel so much pressure. 
• If you have a serious concern, make sure to notify the Judge Advisor in the morning Coaches' meeting BEFORE 9AM.
• Remember Core Values at all times! All judges will take team dynamics and Core Values into consideration, not just in the Core Values room!
• Each judging session last's 10 minutes. This time begins as soon as the door to the judging room opens. Your team should walk in starting their introductions or presentation (depending on the judging room). 
• Your team should bring in a Team Information Sheet to each judging session. Your team will want to fill them out before the Qualifying Tournament
• Team Information Sheet in fillable PDF
• Team Information Sheet in a Word Doc
• Each judging room will have 2-3 judges who will want to talk to your team and be able to fill out the FIRST LEGO League Rubric* for their judging session. Your team is not evaluated compared to other teams, but to the rubric. The rubric will guide the award process, but rubrics cannot be compared between teams as judging evaluation may change throughout the day and rubrics are NOT rewritten to reflect that. Ranking (which the judges do and is NOT made public) does reflect those changes.
  *The Core Value Judges will use the Pilot Rubric available here!
• 2 adults will be permitted to accompany the team into the judging room. These adults MUST be identified as coaches/chaperones with a FIRST consent form, adults do not need to enter the judging room if they feel they will be a distraction for the team.
• Teams should report to the judging check-in table 5 minutes before their scheduling judging time with all the materials they need for that judging session.
• NOTHING (except the Team Information Sheet and Robot Programming printout) should be left in a judging room! Do not leave fliers, Engineering Notebooks, or other items. The judges will NOT have time read additional materials.
• If the team or a coach has a question about something that happened in a judging room or has a very positive or very negative experience with a judge, please notify the Judge Advisor IMMEDIATELY. I can't fix a volunteer situation or encourage a volunteer situation on the Monday afterward, but a Judge Advisor can sit in on a session or talk directly to the judge regarding any situation. All of our judges are volunteers who donate their time. While they do participate in training, they are still human. We want to help them be the best judge they can be for your team, but that requires your help. I am happy to hear all about your experience too! So feel free to email me about that anytime!
  

General Judging information is available on the Oregon Judging Information Site. Venue-specific information will come in your Coach's letter later this month (I haven't gotten the draft to your tournament director, yet, so it will be at least a couple weeks). 

2) Project Presentation

The project presentation judging session is broken into 2 parts. From the time the door opens through the first 5-minutes, your team should present their creative presentation for their project's innovative solution. Teams can do a skit, a song, an informative poster that they talk through, or any other LIVE presentation. Teams may use a small video clip, only if the bulk of the presentation is live. Teams are discouraged from using presentation software, however; if your team would like to do this they must be able to bring in all the necessary equipment and set it up during their 5 minutes of presentation time without any adult assistance. There will not be a laptop and there may not be a screen or whiteboard that the team can use in the room. There will be at least one power outlet. If planning to use this outlet it is recommended the team bring a 20' extension cord.

The remaining 5-minutes will be a question and answer session for the judges to clarify and ensure they did not miss a key component during the presentation.

Your presentation should include:

• The problem your solution is attempting to solve and if needed, why that is a problem.
• What specifically makes your solution NEW or INNOVATIVE, especially compared to existing solutions
• Who you have shared your solution with and who you have worked with to create your solution. 

Without those three items, the judges can not evaluate your team for the project category. 😢  So make sure they are loud proud and a focus of your presentation!  Never assume a judge will ask you about a rubric item. Make it obvious to the judges that your team has that item covered! Judges will focus their questions on the rubric items, but if you feel like they've already asked that question, try answering in a different way or ask for clarification. Sometimes the judge missed what you said, sometimes they don't understand the way the material is presented. No one wants a confused judge!

Your presentation should be practiced but does not need to be memorized. Team members can hold cards, or hide their lines on props. It is better to have a note than to mispronounce or forget an important part of the presentation.

Use the RUBRIC and where your team wants to be marked on it as your guide for creating the content for your presentation! We expect most teams to be at the Developing Level by December. 

Experienced teams know that December is also flu season in Oregon. Make sure two team members know every part of the presentation so if a team member is sick the day of the tournament, the whole team can continue on and honor them. It's good practice to recognize the team member who can not attend's work, and to give them credit for their contributions.

3) Robot Design - MUST READ FOR ALL TEAMS!!!!

For Robot Design Judging your team MUST bring:

• The charged robot with all attachments that may be used in the robot game rounds.
• A printout of your most recent code before arriving at the tournament (you are strongly encouraged to work on your programming throughout the event). This printout will be left with the judges.
• Your team information sheet for Robot Design.

Your team may use additional presentation materials, their engineering notebook, or other documents to better describe the team's mechanical design, programming, and strategy. However, these items MAY NOT be left with the judges. 

*NEW FOR OREGON* There will NOT be a Robot Game Table in the Robot Design Judging Room.  Your team will not be doing a full robot run demonstration for the judges, and this is a good thing! To better facilitate team and judge communication on the key aspects of the robot design judging, and to improve the team judging experience Oregon is following the lead of many other states and removing the distracting "worst table at the tournament" from the judging room. We've known that table is the worst one, it was intentional. We also know that 9 out of 10 teams had their robot fail on the table. This made things unnecessarily difficult for the judges and frustrating for the teams. This year that changes! Instead of a table, your team will see a laminate of the overhead of the INTO ORBIT table as provided by FIRST. Your team is encouraged to use this laminate and the provided marker, to draw strategy, describe how your attachments, sensors, robot navigates, and to highlight how your programming integrates with the game table. Not only will this bring our teams and judges physically closer together, but we also hope it will help your team cover most of the robot design rubric too!  Showing your robot, attachments and how everything works, will still be very important! 

Your team does not need a prepared presentation at the Qualifying Tournament, however; if they would like to give a short executive summary they should notify the judges of their intent upon entering the room.  It's helpful to let the judges know when your summary is finished by inviting them to ask questions. 

PILOT SOFTWARE TEAMS:  If you have notified me that your team is participating in the pilot software program, your judges should be made aware that you will be using a different programming language.  It is up to your team to fully explain the programming of your robot to the judges. They are NOT required to know the language you have selected, so don't expect them to be experts in it.

All team members should be able to talk about all aspects of the robot design, programming, and strategies behind both. This is especially important if some team members who took the lead on part of the robot design are sick on the day of the tournament.  Remember documentation IS a big part of Robot Design, especially programming. 

4) Core Values and the Pilot Rubric

When your team enters the Core Values room, they will be given a secret task by the judges. It is very important that no one on your team shares what this task is with any other team, especially the adults! The secret task will take no longer than 4 minutes. The team will work together to participate in the task, and will be observed by the judges during this time. It is very important for the team members to talk clearly so that the judges can hear their thought process and how they work on the task. 

After the team completes the task they will talk with the judges. If your team would like to share a Core Values poster (as described in the Challenge Guide) they may do so for one minute. This is completely optional. The judges will use the remaining 5-6 minutes to gain information about the team to complete the Core Values rubric.  This year Oregon is piloting a new Core Values rubric that has been designed to align with the new all FIRST Core Values that were launched this summer. Your team should be prepared with examples on how they meet the described criteria on the rubric.  "

Make sure your team looks over the pilot rubric. Your team does not need to bring anything other than the introduction sheet into this judging room. If your team chooses to bring in a poster, do not leave it with the judges.

It's also very important to remember that Core Values judging happens throughout the tournament in addition to in the judging room. If your team experiences Gracious Professionalism from another team, make sure to let the Pit Admin, Head Referee, or Judge Advisor know.

COACHES AND PARENTS - Core Values is not just for the team. All team representatives, including those in the stands, need to be aware of the FIRST Code of Conduct (you know the part at the end of the tournament application that you didn't read, but you signed anyway?) From the FIRST Participation Rules:

Teams, coaches and supporters at official events are expected to demonstrate the Core Values.

• Individuals interfering with, excessively instructing, prompting or heckling a team or volunteer may be asked to leave.

• Severe infractions of these rules may result in a team’s dismissal from the event. FIRST LEGO League official event volunteers are provided training to identify and respond to these situations (See FIRST Youth Protection Policy).

Individuals and/or teams who fail to abide by the Participation Rules may be ineligible for awards at a tournament.

These are the volunteers LEAST FAVORITE thing to deal with. Not only is it adults ruining everything for the kids, but it's also no fun for our volunteers who are giving many days of their personal time to this program. Then there's the paperwork, no one likes extra paperwork.  Tell your parents, make them aware. Then there's less paperwork and more smiles for everyone!

5) Practice Makes Perfect

While your team is getting ready to attend the Qualifying Tournament it's a great strategy to practice judging sessions with "judges". By "judges" I mean parents, teachers, school administrators, co-workers or any other adult you can find. (and if they have a lot of fun doing it, please encourage them to sign up to volunteer at the tournament).  It's best if the team can do the whole thing from door open to door close, with a coach acting as a timer and the other acting as a videographer.

Training your "judges":

• Give each judge the rubric and give them time to read over it and get familiar with it. Judges should also use this time to get to know each other and learn about their strengths with the topics mentioned on the rubrics.  The judges should have time to jot down a couple questions about each section of the rubric they hope to be able to ask the team if the team doesn't answer it. 
• Give your judges scratch paper to take notes - notes are important if they are seeing more than one team, or will be given time to provide feedback at the end.
• Judges should provide feedback in addition to the rubric, that feedback should be 1 positive statement about something the team did well and one positive statement about what the team can do to be stronger in their next judging session or next year. This should be done for each subsection of the rubric. The judges can work together on this part.
• When filling in the rubric judges can circle or highlight the category that they feel the team meets completely. Sometimes it will feel like the team is almost to the next category on a given section, but they don't quite meet the requirements fully, it's ok to put the circle between categories when this happens.  Judges for the practice should be able to explain what was missing for achieving the next category.

Run your practice:

• Have your judges and videographer in place in the room. If the parents are watching, please instruct them to be as quiet as possible. 
• Prepare the timer for 10 minutes and begin the timer as you open the door to the team. 
• Complete one judging session and have the team thank the judges and leave the room for at least 3 minutes while the judges complete the rubrics and talk. 
• Continue this process until you have practiced all 3 judging sessions. 

Provide the feedback:

• This is a great time to watch the videos of the team if you have that ability.
• Have the judges share how they marked the team and why - if they can't stay or you need to do this at the next meeting, have them leave good notes.
• Watch the videos again and have the team decide how they can improve.
• Keep practicing!

Remember, your kids will be much sillier and more confident in practice where the surroundings are familiar than they will be the day of the event. This is normal. However, having practiced will help them feel confident and safe in the judging room.

Judging is one of the greatest strengths of FIRST LEGO League. It provides our students with a tremendous opportunity for growth and the expression of their ideas and experiences to people in a position of authority. Being prepared and going into the judging room with the philosophy of having fun as a team is a gift that every team member will have for the rest of their lives, all thanks to you, Coach.

Best Wishes,

Loridee