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Facilitating a FIRST Tech

Challenge Meeting

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Inspiring youth to become science & technology leaders & innovators, by engaging them in exciting, experiential, Mentor- and project-based programs

that teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills, inspire

innovation, and foster well-rounded life capabilities.

FIRST® is ...

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Structuring Unstructured Goals!

Things to Review Every Meeting

DEADLINES! Important to Handle at Either the Beginning or End of Meeting

Overall Goals of the Game/Season

Rules for the Game

How the Engineering Notebook is Going

Outside Resources Needed/Questions for HQ

Sub Teams Reporting Out

As sub teams form, or even just other tasks that have to happen simultaneously in a meeting, it’s important to keep everyone updated on progress

Also important to allow students this opportunity to speak to their peers, air out questions, and celebrate accomplishments

Season Timeline

Similar to deadlines, but also remember to cover more nebulous goals and challenges

Also to see how on schedule you may be or if you need to make up more time

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How to Collaboratively Plan an

Agenda

• Setting Up Team/Community Norms

– Always have a couple there, like Gracious Professionalism,

but allow students to add their own norms

– Using these student led norms to facilitate hard situations

• If sub teams do form you can even encourage students to

form sub team community norms

• Keeping students engaged through participation

– The team only happens with the students taking ownership

and being proud of their accomplishments

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Addressing Bias

• Every student needs to understand what every other student is doing

– A lot of teams make rotating between sub groups mandatory

– Be sure to encourage girls to be hands on mechanically and with programming

• On the flip side, encourage boys to be artistic and take an active role in branding

• Hand tools off the bat to girls, lead by example

– During competitions students may be asked about any part of the team at any time

• Encouraging students who are not always talkative to present

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FTC Meeting Template

• Agenda Setting

– What was accomplished last meeting

– Goals for current meeting

• What needs to be tested?

• What needs to be completed?

• What challenges is the team having?

• Team Brainstorming

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FTC Meeting Template

– Season overview

• When are competitions coming up

• Any housekeeping items

– Expectations from FIRST

• What is e-mailed to the Coaches should be

messaged out to the team

• Rule changes are very important

• Scholarship deadlines

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FTC Meeting Template

• Break out groups

– When appropriate we suggest the following teams:

• Mechanical

• Programming

• Engineering Notebook

• Marketing/Fundraising

• Check ins with mentors to groups

– What resources do you need?

– What challenges are you having?

– What successes are you having?

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Sample Meeting Agenda

Meetings can be held once a week or more. FRC teams, with their short six week season, can meet daily

for several hours a day. Jr. FLL teams might just meet for 30 minutes once a week. A good rule of thumb for

meetings, for almost all ages is:

• Housekeeping/Admin - 15-20 minutes – Start with a project timeline, planning backwards from the

first competition date, and help team members set milestone dates. During the admin portion of each

meeting, do a status check and set reasonable team goals for that day. This is the time to field most

questions, concerns and ideas.

• Build & Project time – 2-5 hours, or more, if it’s an FRC team. This is the meat of the meeting, and it

can be helpful to have team members work in smaller groups of 3-5 students on different aspects of

their build or projects. A team historian is also important, helping document the team season with photos

and video. Having an adult on hand for each group helps keep things on track and moving forward, but

it’s important that the students do the work, and adults serve primarily in an advisory or learning guide

capacity. Snacks are also an important part of the Build & Project time, and a vital part of strengthening

the team through the community building act of eating together. Plan to have a lot of food on hand!

Robotics teams fuel their creativity and learning with voracious appetites!

• Wrap Up – 30 min. to 40 min. – This is the time to teach responsible use of library facilities (and any

facilities, really) and respect for those who will use spaces after the students. Making this a routine part

of every meeting helps keep materials accounted for and spaces organized and clean.

Updated July 2016

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Care and Keeping of FTC Materials

• FTC Parts are REUSABLE

• FTC Parts are often shared between teams

• FTC Parts should be cared for so that they

last a long time

• 30 minutes of the meeting should be

allocated (roughly) for putting away

materials correctly and cleaning the space

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FIRST® in Florida Year Round

FIRSTFL.org FIRSTInspires.org

Tampa Bay Area Contacts

Terri Willingham, Regional Director, Central FL – Twillingham@FIRSTInspires.org

Rebecca Hannaford, FIRST Americorps VISTA Leader: Rhannaford@FIRSTInspires.org

Joel Croteau, FIRST Americorps VISTA: Jcroteau@FIRSTInspires.org

Rachel Hannaford, FIRST Americorps VISTA: Rachel.Hannaford@FIRSTInspires.org

Developed by Americorps VISTA Rebecca

Hannaford - July 2016 – FIRSTFL.org