SYRA Advice for New Parents
By Jack Gregory, Sharon Youth Robotics Association
Last updated: 14-Sep-2016
OK, so you are not a “new parent”. But you are to us. Typically, you are a parent of a youngish child who is interested in LEGO and Robotics. They want to “get on a robot team”. You have no idea what to do. This document is for you.
First, I need to dispel some assumptions you might have. That this is just like youth soccer, or baseball, and the association collects kids and money and forms teams and maybe has tryouts. The Sharon Youth Robotics Association (SYRA from here on) doesn’t form teams. We don’t sign up children. When we started in 1999, we did. But we learned the hard way that it doesn’t work for robots, at least not in the way we wanted to do it. The SYRA is an association of teams. We primarily support the “FIRST LEGO League”, which is the international challenge for 9-14 year-olds run every fall. FIRST is headquartered in New Hampshire. SYRA is not a part of FIRST. We exist to support teams in the Sharon area, but we have no official standing with FIRST. To them, we are just another team.
The primary FLL website is here: http://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll
What you need to do first is find or form a team. If your child has friends on an existing team, try to get on that one. The SYRA publishes a list of “students looking for teams” in each weekly email, but this is the least likely way to get on a team. The most likely way is to form a team yourself, and get your child’s friends to join, and maybe pull some kids off our list. That will give you the basis for a team almost instantly.
If you are not willing or able to form a team, you have to find one. We can try to help, but what teams do is up to them. If you want your child on the unassigned list, send the student’s name, age, grade, school, the parent’s name and contact info (email preferred) to me (jack.g.gregory@gmail.com), and I will put It in the next update. Generally speaking, if your child is not on a team by October, it is too late; teams are moving fast by then, and adding people is difficult. The first tournaments are in November.
FIRST now has a way to look up teams in your area. This is new, but unfortunately it provides no contact information. You can see there is a team in your town or nearby, but you have no way to contact it.
Don’t be surprised if none of the teams you do contact are taking new members. FLL teams require an intense level of work for students, all outside of school and other hobbies. It is usually only close friends that can survive the pressure of the schedule. A team usually meets at least once a week (not including the SYRA meetings) at someone’s house for at least a couple of hours. As the state tournaments approach, this can turn into an every-day schedule. Kids, coaches, parents, everyone needs to be compatible under pressure.
There is a lot of work, to be done by the kids, in an FLL challenge. In addition to designing, building, and testing the robot, there is “the project” which is an entirely independent research project based on the year’s theme. This all has to be done in about 12 weeks. In Massachusetts, there are enough teams that it is difficult to get into tournaments and even harder to get to the state championship.
Starting a Team
The easiest way to ensure your student gets on a team is to start one!
1. Form a team. No team, no fun. A team is at least 3 kids and at least one coach.
2. Register your team with FLL. Soon, or you won't be able to this season. A team requires 2 approved coaches, and the approval process is not instant. They are essentially “CORI checking” every coach. You need at minimum 1 team registration and 1 field set. For 2016, this is around $300. If you don't have LEGO robot sets that you need, you can order them at the same time.
3. Decide who is going to host your team meetings. This host will need: a. A computer to program the robots, b. Space to put out the practice field, and c. A lot of LEGO. You should plan to meet at minimum once a week for 2 hours.
4. Start signing up for tournaments. Yes, you need to do this soon as you can. They fill up. In Massachusetts, you need to get into a qualifier to have a chance make it to the state championship. Once you are registered with FLL, you will get emails from MA-FLL.
5. Sign up with SYRA. To do this, fill out an SYRA Team Roster form, and submit to Jack Gregory with $100. This allows your team to participate in the Monday meeting practice rounds.
6. Have all team members read the rules, including updates, several times a day.
7. Start thinking about how you are going to solve all the missions.
8. Learn how to use the software that programs the robot, and make the robot do things that you want. It is harder than it sounds.
The SYRA exists to help teams get started and get up to speed as quickly as possible, and then do as well as possible in the FLL scene. We can advise on coaching, engineering, and the projects. We can come to your first home meeting and give you and your other parents an idea of how to run it. You don’t have to be an engineer/programmer/nerd to be a coach. The kids do the work.
If this note hasn’t answered any questions you might have, please contact me at jack.g.gregory@gmail.com.
First, I need to dispel some assumptions you might have. That this is just like youth soccer, or baseball, and the association collects kids and money and forms teams and maybe has tryouts. The Sharon Youth Robotics Association (SYRA from here on) doesn’t form teams. We don’t sign up children. When we started in 1999, we did. But we learned the hard way that it doesn’t work for robots, at least not in the way we wanted to do it. The SYRA is an association of teams. We primarily support the “FIRST LEGO League”, which is the international challenge for 9-14 year-olds run every fall. FIRST is headquartered in New Hampshire. SYRA is not a part of FIRST. We exist to support teams in the Sharon area, but we have no official standing with FIRST. To them, we are just another team.
The primary FLL website is here: http://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll
What you need to do first is find or form a team. If your child has friends on an existing team, try to get on that one. The SYRA publishes a list of “students looking for teams” in each weekly email, but this is the least likely way to get on a team. The most likely way is to form a team yourself, and get your child’s friends to join, and maybe pull some kids off our list. That will give you the basis for a team almost instantly.
If you are not willing or able to form a team, you have to find one. We can try to help, but what teams do is up to them. If you want your child on the unassigned list, send the student’s name, age, grade, school, the parent’s name and contact info (email preferred) to me (jack.g.gregory@gmail.com), and I will put It in the next update. Generally speaking, if your child is not on a team by October, it is too late; teams are moving fast by then, and adding people is difficult. The first tournaments are in November.
FIRST now has a way to look up teams in your area. This is new, but unfortunately it provides no contact information. You can see there is a team in your town or nearby, but you have no way to contact it.
Don’t be surprised if none of the teams you do contact are taking new members. FLL teams require an intense level of work for students, all outside of school and other hobbies. It is usually only close friends that can survive the pressure of the schedule. A team usually meets at least once a week (not including the SYRA meetings) at someone’s house for at least a couple of hours. As the state tournaments approach, this can turn into an every-day schedule. Kids, coaches, parents, everyone needs to be compatible under pressure.
There is a lot of work, to be done by the kids, in an FLL challenge. In addition to designing, building, and testing the robot, there is “the project” which is an entirely independent research project based on the year’s theme. This all has to be done in about 12 weeks. In Massachusetts, there are enough teams that it is difficult to get into tournaments and even harder to get to the state championship.
Starting a Team
The easiest way to ensure your student gets on a team is to start one!
1. Form a team. No team, no fun. A team is at least 3 kids and at least one coach.
2. Register your team with FLL. Soon, or you won't be able to this season. A team requires 2 approved coaches, and the approval process is not instant. They are essentially “CORI checking” every coach. You need at minimum 1 team registration and 1 field set. For 2016, this is around $300. If you don't have LEGO robot sets that you need, you can order them at the same time.
3. Decide who is going to host your team meetings. This host will need: a. A computer to program the robots, b. Space to put out the practice field, and c. A lot of LEGO. You should plan to meet at minimum once a week for 2 hours.
4. Start signing up for tournaments. Yes, you need to do this soon as you can. They fill up. In Massachusetts, you need to get into a qualifier to have a chance make it to the state championship. Once you are registered with FLL, you will get emails from MA-FLL.
5. Sign up with SYRA. To do this, fill out an SYRA Team Roster form, and submit to Jack Gregory with $100. This allows your team to participate in the Monday meeting practice rounds.
6. Have all team members read the rules, including updates, several times a day.
7. Start thinking about how you are going to solve all the missions.
8. Learn how to use the software that programs the robot, and make the robot do things that you want. It is harder than it sounds.
The SYRA exists to help teams get started and get up to speed as quickly as possible, and then do as well as possible in the FLL scene. We can advise on coaching, engineering, and the projects. We can come to your first home meeting and give you and your other parents an idea of how to run it. You don’t have to be an engineer/programmer/nerd to be a coach. The kids do the work.
If this note hasn’t answered any questions you might have, please contact me at jack.g.gregory@gmail.com.