The Team Coordinator Guide is the handbook for the adult running the team, and it is a download. It is written for the person organising, not for the students competing, and it assumes no robotics background.
This is the RVR edition, for the U15 division, Grades 6-8.
What it covers
- Season checklists, in order, from registering on myTEAMevents through preparing the team to the day itself and on to a Championship Event.
- An Online Submission season checklist, for teams entering without travelling, and the tips that go with it.
- Tips for competitions, which is the practical advice that is hard to work out on your own the first season.
- Team roles: Programmers, Engineers, Debuggers, Designers and a Mission Manager. Handing students a role is the difference between a team and a crowd around one laptop.
- The Mission Field and the materials a team needs: an RVR+ or RVR robot, the Sphero Blueprint Snap SRM Kit, a coding device and a 2.25 by 1.5 meter surface for the field.
- Blueprint building practices, for the Blueprint parts RVR teams build their field objects with, and where the rules say what to build for each Mission Objective.
- Nine meeting agendas, so a coordinator has somewhere to start rather than an empty hour: Intro Sessions to get comfortable with RVR, Learning Sessions on movements, lights and sounds, events, loops and functions, sensors and controls, and variables, then Mission Sessions for the Mission Objectives themselves.
- Event formats and event types, so the difference between an In-Person Event and an Online Submission is clear before you register for the wrong one.
What a Team Coordinator actually does
Registration, a room for meetings and the Mission Field, materials, and getting everyone there on the day. The guide is clear that you do not need to be a programmer or a teacher: the coordinator is a facilitator, and the Student-Powered™ team does the exploring and the problem solving. If you can organise a field trip you can run a team.
Questions go to support@teamalliance.org.