Friday, September 24, 2010

FTC-Iowa Team Blast: Week #2

Good afternoon and Happy Friday!

This is going to be a quick e-mail.

1. September Team Status Report - Now Open!

2. Skills Driving Event: Saturday, Oct. 16th
3. Upcoming FTC Events
4. FTC-Iowa Blog

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1. September Team Status Report - Now Open!

Please take a few moments and give us some feedback as to how your team is doing with the FTC program. We understand a few of you have just registered and are just starting (which is great!) but we'd still appreciate some feedback as to how we can help you.  This will not take more than a few moments to complete and you can have one of your mentors or team members complete it. This report will be open until Friday, Oct. 1, 2010 and we ask for all teams to complete this report. (If you have multiple teams, please fill out a report for each of your teams.)

The status report can be found at: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dGZXLWhybDBKZjNiNU55cXZHOTI2aXc6MA#gid=0

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2. Skills Driving Event: Saturday, Oct. 16thOur first "official" event of "Get Over It!" is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 16th -- and there is still space available for your team! Please register at: https://sites.google.com/site/ftciowacoaches/project-definition/skills-driving-event

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3. Upcoming FTC Events
We are excited to partner with several colleges and museums, throughout the State, as host sites for our scrimmage events.
A listing of our upcoming events can be found at: https://sites.google.com/site/ftciowacoaches/calendar

We will notify you when scrimmage registrations has opened.

A few changes from last season:

  • We encourage teams to attend at least one scrimmage. The more you can attend, the better your team will be.
  • There is no registration fee to attend scrimmages.
  • We will be running the scrimmages, especially the ones in January and February, as if it is a tournament. Please come prepared to compete. If your robot doesn't work perfectly, that is ok. We will have resources there to help you.
  • We will be doing robot inspections at the scrimmages. Please make sure all of your robot parts fit within the guidelines put forth in the game manual.
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4. FTC-Iowa Blog
If you miss a Team Blast E-mail, they will be posted on our blog. http://ftc-iowa.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

FTC-Iowa Team Blast: Week #1

FTC-Iowa Team Blast #1
Sent on Sept. 17, 2010

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1. Information about "Get Over It"
FIRST has linked information about "Get Over It" on the following website: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc/content.aspx?id=962
You can find the Game Manual, Coaches Manual and information about the Samantha Module on the listed website.

Mentors, team members, and coaches are expected to know the content of the Game Manual.
Coaches are expected to know the content of the Coaches Manual.

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2. Follow-up from FTC-Iowa Kick-Off
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the FTC-Iowa Kick-off on Saturday, Sept. 11 at Point Middle School in Cedar Rapids. It was a great time, and my team and I really appreciated seeing all of the great reactions from the teams about the game! Awesome!

If you would like to download the materials distributed during a few of the workshops or to see pictures from the Kick-Off, you can view them on our site at: https://sites.google.com/site/ftciowacoaches/project-definition/2010-kick-off-celebration

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3. Upcoming Event: Skills Event on 10/16/2010
As we mentioned during the Kick-Off Celebration, our first event will be a skills driving event on Saturday, October 16, 2010.
  • Location: Lower Level rooms of the Coralville Public Library (1401 5th Street, Coralville, Iowa)
  • Time: Team Pit time - 10:30am-12pm, Lunch break - 12pm-1pm, Skills Driving Event - 1pm-4pm
  • As with a majority of our events, there is no cost to attend. (Thank you, volunteers!)
  • For more information about the event, and how to register, please visit our website at: https://sites.google.com/site/ftciowacoaches/project-definition/skills-driving-event
We encourage all teams to attend as many events as possible throughout the season, as there is a huge benefit to the students, mentors and coaches who attend and interact with the other teams. Information about other upcoming events will be posted on our website at: https://sites.google.com/site/ftciowacoaches/calendar

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4. FTC Team Forum: New Site & New Look!
FIRST has just released a new FTC team forum, and it has a new look! Check it out at: http://ftcforum.usfirst.org/ (This is a great site to bookmark!) All teams will need to register with this new forum, regardless if you had access to the FIRST Forums in the past, as this will replace the "blue" forums. Registration will ask for your 4-digit team number, so please have it handy.

FIRST has done a great job subdividing this forums into "categories". They include:
  • Samantha Module Questions/Issues - moderated
  • Game Q & A - moderated
  • FTC Community Forum - open forum, anyone can post
In regards to the Samantha and Game Q/A categories, here are some pointers:
  • Prior to posting a question, please read over the Game Manual to see if a solution has has already been provided in the manual.
  • Do a keyword search prior to posting a question- a team may have already asked a similar item.
  • Have a team member to “monitor” the forums at least once a week.
  • Your question/issue will be answered by the Game Design Committee (GDC) or FIRST staff. The answer they give will be final.
  • Your question will only appear after the GDC or FIRST staff have addressed it.
  • Postings will begin to appear after the first regional competition has taken place (beginning of December), so do not expect a lot of postings on the forums until then.
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5. FTC-Iowa Championship: Feb. 25/26, 2011
The FTC-Iowa Championship will be held on Feb. 25 & Feb. 26, 2011 at The University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. We will be having a large competition. We will be requiring ALL teams to check-in and be inspected on Friday, Feb. 25th with team judging beginning early in the morning on Saturday, Feb. 26th. Please start to plan accordingly.

More information about the Championship will be sent at a later date.

If you received funding through a Rockwell Collins grant, you agreed to attend and compete in a tournament. The FTC-Iowa tournament is the way to go. :)

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6. Potential Event: PTC workshop in October
We are currently working with PTC to offer an evening workshop during sometime in October. Although the date/time/location has not been determined, please respond and let us know if you would be interested in attending.

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As a reminder, the September Team Status Report will be active during the week of Sept. 27-Oct. 1, all teams will need to complete these on-line reports.