FRC Updates 12-17-2024

Upcoming Important Dates

1/24 – FIRST Choice by AndyMark Open Ordering Begins

2/6/25 – Dean’s List and Woodie Flowers Award Submissions are due.

2/13/25 – Impact Award Submissions are due

2/26/25 – FIRST Day at the statehouse.

See FRC Calendar

FIN FRC Coaches Calls Updates

Over the past few weeks since kickoff, FIN has hosted a couple of FRC Coaches calls.  We want to thank those coaches and teams who have helped provide content for these calls, our student board of directors members who attend to lend the student voice to our conversation and of course the coaches who attend our calls to learn and share alongside our presenters.

Keeping Students Engaged

Our first call was aimed at the issue of keeping students engaged at team meetings.  David Ebersol, head coach of 5484 Career Academy, led the discussion.  He discussed how they have developed sub-teams and have mentors assigned to each of those sub-teams, then students pick the sub-teams to be on and the mentors work with those smaller groups to hold the students accountable to their deliverables. Whether they are working robot components or awards submissions this system has helped keep their students more engaged.

Another practice that was discussed was the idea of having more to do at each team meeting that can get done (pretty common during FRC build season!). If the team can outline the things that need to get done each night, then as students find themselves less engaged they can go to the list and work on something else.

The student leaders on the call discussed their roles on their respective teams and how they work with their fellow students to keep everyone as engaged as possible at each meeting.

Putting together a regular itinerary for the meeting is a good practice that was also discussed.  Having a start of meeting tradition and a meeting wrap up tradition is good for keeping everyone in check.  Start each meeting with a short conversation by leadership around important announcements, sub-team check ins, double check the workflow lists, etc.  At the end of each meeting take some time to share some wins from the meeting, some things that need to be pushed to “tomorrow” and make a habit of picking up a bit.

If you would like to see the slide deck that David Ebersol presented, please email me, Chris Osborne – cosborne@firstindianarobotics.org

Dean’s List

Thanks to FRC 461 mentors Steve Florence and Betsy Baxter for helping to lead our most recent call around submitting for the Dean’s List award.  Also, thanks to Ashley, Liam, and Hannah for joining us from the student board to share some student perspectives as well.

This call covered the criteria for the Dean’s List Award:

• Demonstrated leadership and commitment to the FIRST Core Values
• Effectiveness at increasing awareness of FIRST in their school and community
• Demonstrates passion for a long-term commitment to FIRST 
• The student’s individual contributions to their team contribute to the overall success of the team
• Proven experience in areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
• The student is a role model and can motivate and lead fellow team members

We also discussed deadlines for submission, the process of how the essays, interviews, and judging works from start to finish, and more.

Some good tips from the call were:

1. When writing the essay use the criteria above to address your nominees traits per criterion.
2. Make sure your students that you nominate are part of the essay writing process.  Do NOT surprise your students with Dean’s List nominations.  They need to be prepped ahead of time with interview practice, etc.  Also, we want to make sure the essays are accurate.
3. No matter the process your team uses for choosing the nominees, please work closely with them ahead of events to be prepared.
4. Don’t discount students on your team just because they may also be on your drive team or award presenters, etc.
5. Nominate students every year.  It is an honor to just be nominated by the team.   Please provide your students the opportunity to be interviewed, etc.  This is good practice for them for other interviews they may have in the future.
6. Bring in some people that you may know that your nominees aren’t familiar with to do practice interviews.
7. On the day of their interview, escort them to the interview area primarily to be a source of calm and reinforce their preparedness and help them not be as nervous.
8. Celebrate your nominees each year and make sure to have announcements made at school, issue a local press release, and put on social media.  This is an honor – celebrate it!

We did have a brief discussion about students nominating mentors for the Woodie Flowers Award.  Some of the same advice here was given.

1. It’s a good idea to let your nominee know before attending competitions.
2. Make sure the essay is accurate before submitting.
3. Have another adult on the team help with the essay.
4. Nominate every year.
5. Teams that have had a former finalist can re-nominate that finalist every year AND nominate a new person.  Take advantage of this.

Thanks again to all those who have participated in these calls and shared their better practices with us and thanks to our student board members who continue to share their experiences and lend their voice to these calls!

Be on the lookout for future coaches calls in the “Two for Tuesday” email blasts.

Indiana Mentor Bridge

FIN Alumni Database

Register your information in the FIN Alumni Database.  Our Board of Directors and alumni committee are working on creating networking events, social gatherings, and more for the FIN Alumni community.