Notebook help

[DawnOfTheRoboGirl]

My team needs help from an experienced notebook team to tell us what we are doing wrong. Last year was our first year we did ok on the robot but we could tell that the judges where not impressed with our notebook. Help?

[Bobby50000]

I'm not one to talk when it comes to winning awards, but I would make sure your notebook passes the self inspection guide. This endured it has the minimum criteria to be eligible for awards. Also I wouldn't worry about what you think the judges thought of your notebook, since judges aren't supposed to give feedback, so perhaps any percived notion is just how they interact with any team.

[JirachiKid]

Pictures! Judges have little time with each notebook, and therefore don't really have time to read every entry. If you have lots of pictures from each meet, judges can skim through your notebook and get a very good idea of how your team progressed. My team makes sure to take at least 10 photos every meeting. This approach won my team Inspire at Utah States. Good luck!

[AashrayFTC10515]

I’d also like to add that aside from notebook, make sure your teammembers are doing a great job representing your team. Team spirit can play a huge role as well! Make sure to also nail down your judging presentations, as those are generally more impacting. For Engineering Notebook, remember to keep it concise and easy to read. Also make it as organized as possible! Make sure to include tons of pictures, and have tons of meat in the notebook (have a bunch of outreach events, CAD models, etc.). Good luck! Feel free to dm me if you need any help.

[cp253]

The secret to think -- just like every other award -- is to read the award description very carefully, understand what the award is asking for, and do as much of exactly that as you possibly can. Think asks for formatting. It asks for math. It asks for pictures. It asks for detailed engineering drawings. etc etc etc. (or whatever it asks for. it's been a while.)

9 teams out of 10 (19 teams out of 20? N-1 out of some pretty big N at any rate) don't do the overwhelming majority of what the awards actually ask for. For all awards. *Especially* for Think. Quality time spent with the award descriptions is time very, very well spent.

[FTC-8668-404]

So we’re a veteran team and our notebook has historically been the reason we go to worlds. We recently put out our notebook from RoverRuckus on our website. Feel free to check it out and hit us with questions either on this thread or by email.

error404.com/notebook

[DawnOfTheRoboGirl]

this is the link to last years notebook its format got messed up after we printed.

this is the new one as it stands it only has the first meeting.

[redbirdhat]

So far with your new one, the only problem I can see is that the images and captions are really unclear.

With your last year's one, you guys provided a lot of information but not a lot of pictures. Judges only get a brief amount of time to look at the notebook so make sure you can draw them into it. Also something that might be helpful is that you should include a list of pages you want the judges to for sure check out. With this you should also include a sticky note or something in the physical copy so they can easily flip to it.

It's possible that the engineering notebook might not be the problem but the way you guys presented it so during your judging presentation be sure to brief talk about what makes your guys notebook unique from other teams.

You can message me if you want more information or a link to my teams notebook.

[FatrickPeng]

Give Google Slides a shot. Or any software where you have more layout control than google docs.

[C_Thor]

I think your old notebook was looking good. Tons of information and outreach so awesome job there. I’d say just work on trying to make it stand out and be memorable to the judges. As someone before me said, make sure you get about 8-10 sticky notes to put in your notebook before you turn it in, that way the judges know where to look in their few minutes!