2009+Team+Remarks

To the next year of mind storms participants, this class is full of skills and dedication. This class is fun but includes lots of hard work and dedication. This class has to do with robots but this is just 50% of what you need to do in this class, you also need to come up with a project and for the project you have to base this off of the subject that the fll gives you. This year it was transportation and we came up with a problem. This year it was transportation and you will have to come up with a problem that has to do with the problem. After you do this you will need to come up with some possible solutions to this problem. After you do this you will have to come up with a skit or a song or something related to that and you will have to be prepared to do your skit at the competition. At the competition it will be nothing that you think it is and you will be excepted no matter who you know or who you don’t know you will have the best time you have ever had at a competition. If you go down the night before the competition you will see a guest speaker and you will not know what they do until you get there unless your coach/mentor tells you before hand and you will be glad you went to see them when the competition comes around because they give you great advise and they will understand what you are going through and they will be able to help you if you have any questions about what they do or the robots. You will have a lot of fun and you will have a great experience. One of the best things about the competition is the people that you meat and the people that run the competition. Just remember don’t be nervous and have fun you will have a great time and you will love it. You have to trust your coach and understand what he/she is doing to improve your work and see what you can do.

From Erin Z. TEAM COMMENTS

Dear future Mindstormers, I have a few words of advice to you. Don’t let other people lure you into talking and playing around instead of working. Be a leader!! Step up and help the group achieve its goal so that come competition time you don’t feel embarrassed because you don’t have anything done. Trust me I know how that is and you can get a lot done at the competition, but it’s better to get it done before. Make sure that if you are going to be on the team, you really want to be there and don’t act bored!! There have been people on the team this year that you can tell don’t really want to be here. When people act they don’t want to be here, they hardly get anything done because they just talk, and play around with their friends. You also have to learn to get along with people that you don’t necessarily like of hang out with. This year I came into this class and didn’t know like any of the people. I never would have dreamed that most of the people in my class became some of my really good friends. Just try and get along with everybody. You will get a lot more done and at the end of the semester, maybe you will have some new friends!! Personally, I think that it would be a good idea, to elect 1 or 2 team leaders that can help the team achieve their goal. Make sure that when you elect team leaders, they are responsible and you know that you can count on them no matter what. If the leaders are irresponsible, the class will be more likely to get off task and not accomplish their goal. Most of all though, HAVE FUN!!! If you aren’t having fun, why are you in this class?! And yes, it is possible to have fun and stay on task at the same time!! Have a great time and get a lot done! It would not be that hard to win the whole competition. YOU CAN DO IT!

Sincerely, Taylor H.

Dear future mindstorms participants don’t be afraid to voice your ideas mindstorms is all about learning to deal with frustration. Some participants will try to distract you but remember no one can make your choices for you. Be a leader. All men and woman can make a difference good or bad. Also if you work from the start you can win our team didn’t work from the beginning we fooled around and don’t work you will realize at the competition that you can win.

From: Winton H mindstorms participant 2009-2010 Dear next years mindstorms class, Dear next years class Hey guys my name is Zane and I was part of Mr. Sanchez’s mindstorms group last year. I am really happy you guys signed up for this because it should be really fun and an awesome experience. I hope you guys listen to Mr. Sanchez because he is a great mentor and help for getting you through the project, robot, and teamwork part of mindstorms. But be careful about procrastinating because it will come back and haunt you. We did not work on the robot or project pretty much at all most of the year. There for we had to finish are project in the hotel we were staying at. The robot ended up getting worked on every minute at the competition and we went there with zero points and came out with 215 we were very happy. Obviously we had a fun time but make sure you work hard and I promise you you’ll get rewarded. Sincerely Zane

Dear new mindstorm guys. One thing I have to say to the little kids is that you have all made a decision to join this team. As a team you must win and lose together. If you do not wish to be a part of this team, then feel free to leave, but do not hold the team down. Many decisions will have to be made, when confronted with these decisions, you will have to come together as a team and decide. Trust that gut feeling. Good luck-Hunter

Dear, future minstormers.

I would like tell some advice to be successful in this class. the first thing is that you have to learn how to work as a team and not just a person who goes and does their own thing in order to work as a team you have to listen to other people and come up with some ideas you may need for this class. The second thing is don’t goof off if you goof off your only letting your team down and also hurting the group. Here is some advice about the competition in December. The competition is so much fun in the competition there is people all around from Wyoming come to compete in this competition to win prizes and the feeling of being cool. At the end of the competition everybody wins a medal and then some of the teams will get called sown to the stage and get a trophy made of legos.

From: Josh G.

To the future mindstormers kids, here is some advice for you guess to help make things easier. First of all when you first come in here the teacher will tell you about what Mindstorms is and then probably talk to you about the competition and what you do. Our teacher on the first day we did a little activity that uses teamwork, because that is mainly the whole reason about this completion. After telling us about what it is all about he just let us go to do our own things. He told us he would not tell us how to do things he would just answer questions for us because it was about us and not him. In this class the teacher will tell you that this is all your own and they can answer your questions but won’t do anything for you and will make sure this is all your own. In this class you will have to stay on task because if you don’t you will have to do it all at the last minute which is one of the worst things you can do. You will have to have a good plan about what you are going to do and what you will do at the competition and you will have a great time at the competition and you will be happy while you are there. At the competition you will go through a teamwork problem and a robot design judging and the about 1 problem that you do in front of judges.

By Ana

 Throughout this whole experience in Mindstorms, I learned quite a few things. One major thing I learned was to learn and manage how to work well and get along with everybody in your group, whether you like them or dislike them. This was very helpful, especially overlapping with my second learned thing. Another thing I learned was if you give someone a chance even if you disliked them in the beginning, you may turn out to be the best of friends. If you spend a day and a night with someone you are bound to end up friends eventually. By getting along with people and knowing how to work well with them, you will do extremely well in the teamwork section of the competition; which is a big part of how the judges determine your team’s place. Then lastly, I learned that winning isn’t everything. This may have been our teams, the Buffalo Hitchhikers, first time going to a competition like this, but we managed to place ninth out of fifty-six teams. Of course we wanted to win, and we did win a trophy because of our coach/teacher Mr. Sanchez. But most importantly, just have fun! There are quite a few other things I would improve before going to the competition as well. One thing being to actually work and get our priorities sorted out and use all of the time given to us. Half of our team was really bad with this too, we would use this class as a social class to just talk and laugh at random stuff. About the last week we had before the competition, we finally pulled our heads out of the sky and did work and look where we ended up? I also would have improved our project. We also waited until the last week to actually start working on our project, then the night before the competition our team worked on our layout and how we would enter and stand before the judges. That’s another thing, you have to create a problem and a solution and present a project in front of these judges. It scared me at first, but I got over it because I knew I had friends to back me up. This year’s topic was transportation and we had to think of some problem to go along with that. The one main thing I wish I could go back and improve on was working on our project a lot longer, harder, and actually concentrate on the main issue. Our team just might have taken the competition if we worked every single day our hardest and took our knowledge to the limit. I could think of various tips to inform future Mindstorms students, but I suppose I’m only allowed to tell three. The first tip I would give to you guys is what I said before, use your time and take advantage of it from the very first day. Your teacher will more than likely be Mr. Sanchez and I’ll tell you now that he will not tell you what to do, he will give you the problem and help you with any other questions you have, but he will not do the work for you. Another tip I would recommend is to use your imagination. No idea is considered stupid or unimportant; just don’t limit your mind on ideas. The last tip I would consider using is don’t separate into different teams like we did. Everyone on your team must know what is going on in each part of your project, presentation, and robot. That will come in handy when being interviewed by the judges on your teamwork participation part. All I can really think to suggest over this past experience is to have fun and think big.

Sincerely, Ciara L.  