One challenge is getting the kids to focus on all four areas that are part of the First Lego League challenge. It's so much fun to work with the robot to run missions, how can I get them to realize that the research project is just as important?
One approach we're trying is to give them a chance to run missions for 2.5 minutes and do a presentation at the start and finish of each meeting.
Our meetings are scheduled to start at 10am. By about 10:05, anyone who is here gets a one minute warning to decide which missions they'll run. And then we start.
Some kids were late and realized what they had missed. It's good practice for them to realize that if the schedule says our competition round starts at 9:30, then we have to be ready at 9:30 and not 9:45.
In the morning, the team carries over the teamwork mark from the end of the last session. At the end of the session, the kids choose their own score for teamwork.
Each week we are talking about how the judges will score each of the four elements. Today we talked about the 25% that will go to teamwork.
When I ask them what they think they scored today and why, the first response was 25/25, but then one of the other kids spoke up and said 10 because ... He listed about 3 different incidents where their teamwork could have been better. Everyone quickly agreed with his score.
Now they know they will be scoring their teamwork each meeting, I hoping they will have the incentive to make improvements.
