The Inventioneers Top 10 Tips for the FLL Off-Season

Here's the next tip in our series of tips for the off-season:

Tip #3
If you are considering starting an FLL team, get started now instead of waiting until August or September. As a rookie team, look for off-season events and tournaments for your team participate in. The Inventioneers will be hosting an off-season tournament for new rookie teams and are willing to help teams organize scrimmages for fun and experience.

In this post, we're highlighting a new team that started in January 2010. Join us in welcoming the Mount Zion Christian School team to the FLL family! They have been meeting since the beginning of the year and are gearing up for our off-season tournament. We joined them for a team meeting to introduce them to FLL and to share our personal recommendations for a successful season with them. They are excited and can't wait to get to the robot!

The Best Way to Good Teamwork is Through Snacks!

Here's a recipe which has hit the top spot on our team time snack list! Try them out on your team!

Banana Muffins

(makes 24-30 muffins)

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup chopped nuts or raisins(optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
2 cups mashed bananas (about 5 medium)
1 cup apple juice
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Top 10 Team-Building Tips - Games

Here's another fun game to play during breaks at team meetings!

The Human Knot
Everyone stands in a circle and grabs hands. You cannot take the hands of the people next to you nor can you hold onto both of the same person's hands. Once everyone is holding two hands, the object of the game is to untangle yourselves without letting go of anyone's hands. It usually takes a while and actually sometimes it is impossible but it is a lot of fun! Check out our slide show below to see how the Human Knot is played!

The Inventioneers Top Ten Tips for the Off-Season

As we mentioned last week, we're going to give teams some tips on how to keep the momentum going and how to prepare your team for the new season! Here is another fun idea for the off-season:

Tip #2
Plan to attend another FIRST event as a team. The high school FIRST Robotics Competition, called FRC, is fun to watch especially if you understand the game – check it out at FRC Regional Events. Here in NH, the FRC tournament, the BAE Granite State Regional, will be held at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester from March 4-6 with the finals on March 6th. Check out this link to see an animation of this year’s FRC soccer-type game “Breakaway”.

You can also check out another FIRST program called FIRST Tech Challenge or FTC, also for high school students. Check out the 2009-10 game “Hot Shot!”. The closest tournament to us in NH is the Massachusetts FTC Championship Tournament to be held February 27, 2010 in Palmer, MA. Check out events near you at FTC Events and click on the box next to FTC and then select your area.

Top 10 Team-Building Tips - Games

Because FUN is the best part of FLL, our team always has a game ready to play during breaks at team meetings. We already shared one game (http://theinventioneers.blogspot.com/2009/09/fll-tip-of-week.html) and now over the next few weeks, we'll share some more of our favorites! Here's one of the team games we love to play together and also with teams we mentor!

The Hoolahoop Game

Everyone stands in a circle holding hands for the entire game. Put a hoolahoop in between to people's hands so that it is in between the people's arms. Then every person has to go through the hoolahoop with always holding hands until you get back to the person that the hoolahoop started with and try to do it as fast as you can! You can even have two groups competing against each other to see who can do it the fastest!

The Inventioneers Top 10 Tips for the FLL Off-Season

One of the things our team has done over the course of this year is develop a series of Top 10 Lists to help new teams have a fun and successful rookie season. We'll be posting some of these tips here on our blog. We're starting with the first tip from our newest list -

The Inventioneers Top 10 Tips for the FLL Off-Season

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Tip #1:

After a short break from the local and state tournament season, get back on track! We recommend you meet at least once a month for team-building activities like the ones used in teamwork judging sessions. We’ll be posting some ideas over the next few weeks. Here’s a popular one to start with: build the tallest structure possible using dried spaghetti and mini marshmallows. A good twist on this would be to see how much weight the structure could support.

The Inventioneers Win State Championship! Message: Don't Text and Drive

Inventioneers FLL Ambassadors at FIRST at First Night Boston, 2009

We had a successful day at the Hynes Convention Center as part of Boston's First Night celebration! We reached over a thousand people, sharing FIRST programs, primarily FLL (of course), and our Don't DUIT campaign. Thanks to Mr. Steve Cremer, FIRST Regional Director for MA, for arranging the event! We put our two STOW-or-GO Tables and our robot to the test as hundreds of kids had the chance for hands-on experiences! Check out some photos from the event below.

Happy New Year!!!!!
The Inventioneers